Infection Prevention & Control Program

Naval Medical Center Portsmouth is dedicated to preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAI) and to taking appropriate actions when there are infections in the community that may be brought into the medical center. We have an Infection Prevention and Control Committee that is led by a physician and includes nurses and other staff who have special knowledge of infectious disease prevention. Our robust Infection Prevention and Control Program focuses on minimizing the incidence of HAIs in patients, staff and visitors. We accomplish this goal with our Wash In, Wash Out (WiWo) hand hygiene program and through the use of clinical standards and procedures proven to reduce the transmission of infectious diseases. When infections do occur we take immediate actions that include classifying the infectious agent, investigating to identify the cause, and reporting the information internally and to appropriate external agencies. Our Infection Prevention and Control Program involves every hospital facility and depends on the cooperation of every member of the hospital community – patients, staff and visitors. We believe that prevention and control of infections is everyone’s personal responsibility.