Standards for hospital infection control.

The American Hospital Association and the Center for Disease Control, together with other national bodies, have made major efforts in the past 20 years in calling attention to problems of nosocomial infection in U.S. hospitals. Current requirements of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals reflect their efforts but further reflect a profound lack of acceptable data from which rational priorities in hospital infection control might be deduced. Accreditation requirements should be limited to procedures whose effectiveness in either clearly documented or strongly suggested by available data. Research and educational goals in hospital epidemiology must be identified and met in order to provide a scientific basis for hospital infection control procedures.