What is NISPAC?
The National Infection Surveillance Program for Aged Care (NISPAC) is aiming to work with Aged Care to improve surveillance of infections and antimicrobial use in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs).
The NISPAC team are aiming to develop a dedicated and secure website that is freely accessible for all Australian RACFs and enables participation in a national infection and antimicrobial use surveillance program.
Why is NISPAC important?
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 RACFs to benchmark their performance.
What does this mean for staff in residential aged care services?
NISPAC will standardise and streamline surveillance activities for staff. The surveillance modules will be based on up-to-date infection prevention and control and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) guidelines and best practice (accreditation) standards.
Nominated staff within a RACF will be trained to use NISPAC to enter infection and antimicrobial use surveillance data. 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.
About Us
NISPAC is a multi-institute research project developing an infection surveillance program for Australian Residential Aged Care Homes
NISPAC acknowledges Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders past and present.