Brief report: a scheme to review infection control guidelines for the purpose of implementation in the hospital.

Infection control guidelines are now widely used in controlling nosocomial infection. For instance, the guidelines published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are now successfully diffused and available in over 80% of the hospitals in the United States.1 Before introducing any guideline, it should be carefully reviewed and evaluated.2 Because guidelines can only benefit patients after they are successfully implemented,3 the review should focus on the implementation process. A review scheme focusing on implementation was developed. In this scheme, an attempt was made to identify the guideline recommendations already being practiced in the hospital, recommendations requiring extra resources before they could be implemented and recommendations resisted by the hospital staff. We describe the review scheme and a study to assess its validity when used by infection control nurses (ICNs) in Hong Kong.