The business of health care epidemiology: creating a vision for service excellence.

To achieve service excellence in infection control in an era of fiscal constraint requires infection control specialists to demonstrate the value of their department in business terms to their health care administrators. Models for achieving service excellence in infection control based on cost-effective interventions found effective in our organization are described, including development and maintenance of effective teams, guidelines for structuring and implementing interventions, and establishment of business standards for excellence in health care.