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Updated: Jul 18, 2026
Automated Hospital Room Disinfection Utilizing a Novel Aerosolized Hydrogen Peroxide Microdroplet Disbursing Technology
Published on: February 24, 2026
How many infection control staff do we need in hospitals?
P J van den Broek1, J A J W Kluytmans, L C Ummels
1Department of Infectious Diseases, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands. p.j.van_den_broek@lumc.nl
Abstract:
During a one-day workshop experienced infection control practitioners (ICPs) and medical microbiologists debated how much time was needed for the delivery of infection control activities in a model hospital. They agreed a standard of one full-time equivalent (FTE) ICP per 178 hospital beds and one FTE medical microbiologist per 806 hospital beds. This is 40% and 24% more than the usual standard, respectively. Now that official numbers of hospital beds have become an inadequate parameter for work delivered by hospitals, a new standard is proposed, with the number of admissions as the denominator. This is one FTE ICP per 5000 admissions and one medical microbiologist or epidemiologist per 25000 admissions.
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