Each hospital in Belgium has a hospital hygiene team consisting of a physician and one or more nurses with specific expertise in infection management. Along with the hospital hygiene committee, the chief of medical staff and the chief of the nursing department, they are responsible for the prevention of healthcare associated infections in the hospital.
Practise shows that a good prevention policy can drastically reduce the number of healthcare associated infections. Such a policy is based on general preventive measures including hand hygiene, personal protection (e.g. gloves) and keeping a patient with an infection risk in a separate room. Besides, there are specific measures to prevent urinary tract infections, surgical site infections, lower respiratory tract infections and blood infections. Much attention is also given to monitoring healthcare associated infections in order to quickly detect possible epidemics and to control them.