The National Infection Surveillance Program for Aged Care (NISPAC) is aiming to work with the Aged Care sector to improve surveillance of infections and antimicrobial use in residential aged care homes (RACHs).

The NISPAC team are aiming to develop a dedicated and secure platform that is freely accessible for all Australian RACHs and enables participation in a national infection and antimicrobial use surveillance program.

Effective and efficient surveillance programs protect residents, staff and visitors by identifying problems, such as infection outbreaks, the magnitude of the problem and how the problem can be efficiently and appropriately addressed.

The development, implementation and evaluation of NISPAC will occur over three years, with a goal to roll-out the system nationally. A national program will allow RACHs to benchmark their performance.

NISPAC will standardise and streamline surveillance activities. The surveillance modules will be based on up-to-date infection prevention and control and antimicrobial stewardship guidelines and best practice (accreditation) standards.

Nominated staff within a RACH will be trained to participate in NISPAC. Importantly, ongoing support will include online training sessions, user guides and access to Infectious Diseases physicians, Infection Control Consultants, AMS pharmacists and other experts.

If you have any queries about the project, please don’t hesitate to contact us.