Rewarding and recognizing frontline staff for success in infection prevention

Alice A Gaughan; Daniel M Walker; Matthew J DePuccio; Sarah R MacEwan; Ann Scheck McAlearney

doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2020.06.208

Rewarding and recognizing frontline staff for success in infection prevention

Am J Infect Control. 2021 Jan;49(1):123-125. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2020.06.208. Epub 2020 Jun 30.

Authors

Alice A Gaughan¹, Daniel M Walker², Matthew J DePuccio³, Sarah R MacEwan³, Ann Scheck McAlearney²

Affiliations

¹ The Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics, and Systems Thinking in Health Services and Implementation Science Research (CATALYST), College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. Electronic address: Alice.Gaughan@osumc.edu.
² The Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics, and Systems Thinking in Health Services and Implementation Science Research (CATALYST), College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
³ The Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics, and Systems Thinking in Health Services and Implementation Science Research (CATALYST), College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.

Abstract

Management practices help support efforts to prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Providing rewards and recognition to frontline staff is one management practice found to be in use by hospitals that are higher-performers in HAI prevention. Using data from interviews with hospital managers and frontline staff at 18 US hospitals, our study identifies how managers can use reward and recognition programs as motivational tools to sustain frontline HAI prevention efforts.

Keywords: Healthcare-associated infections; Management practices; Qualitative methods; Rewards.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Cross Infection* / prevention & control
Hospitals
Humans
Reward

Grants and funding

R01 HS024958/HS/AHRQ HHS/United States