At this stage in the process, the hands on work begins to initiate or strengthen the core components of infection prevention and control. Interventions can be piloted to test their effectiveness and adjusted as needed. Later they can be scaled up or replicated in other settings.
Pilot interventions
No matter how much planning is done, it is difficult to know how well an implementation will go in real life. Unforeseen problems can arise and the needs or resources can rapidly change. The Model for Improvement developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement can help to ensure that interventions are aligned with the overall aims and objectives. The model starts with asking key questions about the work to be undertaken and proceeds through a Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle to test ideas. By piloting an intervention with the PDSA cycle, the committee can test the impact of theory put into practice and make adaptations as necessary.
Plan-Do-Study-Act:
Plan – prepare an action plan for implementation
Do – trial the actions in a specific unit or area, or with a certain group of patients
Study – compare the baseline and progress measures
Act – take action depending on the results – continue with the trial in one unit or spread your implementation plan to other areas
Scale up interventions
Pilot projects can be scaled up in time, size or breadth of their reach. The length of time can be extended, a project can be implemented in additional units or departments, or they can reach out to additional personal that were not targeted in the first approach. Challenges may arise when scaling up interventions that did not exist in the original iteration. As with any implementation, the context and setting should always be considered and adjustments made appropriately.
Interventions provides information and resources on basic, infection specific and pathogen specific interventions for infection prevention and control.
Resources for education and training of health care personnel can be found in RAISE AWARENESS – Education and training.
Selected Resources
| Resource | Description |
| Improving infection prevention and control at the health facility: interim practical manual supporting implementation of the WHO guidelines on core components of infection prevention and control programmes | Manual to support effective implementation of IPC programs in health facilities, in line with the WHO Core components for infection prevention and control programmes. Provides practical guidance, tips, tools and examples. |
| Guidelines for the Prevention and Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance in South African Hospitals | Example guidelines to implement antibiotic stewardship and infection prevention for hospitals. Intended for health care professionals in their day-to-day management of resistance. The guidelines build on international guidances and interventions that have been shown to be successful. Customized for South African hospitals based on local experiences. To be used together with Guidelines on Implementation of the Antimicrobial Strategy in South Africa that provides guidance on governance. |
| How to Improve, Institute for Healthcare Improvement | Improvement model used very successfully by hundreds of health care organizations in many countries to improve many different health care processes and outcomes. |
| Nine steps for developing a scaling-up strategy | Guide that facilitate systematic planning for scaling up. |