The role of the hospital administrator in the control of nosocomial infections.

The hospital administrator is responsible for the allocation of resources at the disposal of the institution and therefore plays an important role in the control of nosocomial infections. The problem of determining what proportion of these resources can be allocated to the control of nosocomial infections is complicated by the fact that there remain many unanswered questions concerning this problem, such as whether is is possible to prevent many of the infections acquired in hospital, what the most efficient method of infection surveillance is, and whether the use of antibiotics should be controlled. In such a climate of uncertainty, particularly in a milieu that demands severe budgetary reductions, the hospital administrator will need the assistance of clinicians and epidemiologists to provide data on nosocomial infections so that the limited resources available may be used most effectively.