Project to improve infection prevention and control in residential aged care receives NHMRC funding
Professor Anton Peleg
Professor Anton Peleg from the School of Translational Medicine has received a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) 2023 TCR Improving Infection Prevention and Control in Residential Aged Care Homes grant.
The newly funded research program will develop optimised models and approaches for infection prevention and control in residential aged care homes through a highly engaged co-design process with people with lived experience and end users. The goal is to improve the lives of people living in aged care homes by reducing their risk of infection.
The team includes researchers from Monash University, Deakin University, Royal Freemasons and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
Through strong engagement with consumers, the ‘OPTICS in RACH’ study will develop and evaluate a co-designed, multi-faceted infection and prevention control (IPC) model tailored to residential aged care homes. The study will particularly focus on modifying, adapting and applying evidence-based IPC guidelines established in acute care hospitals to a residential aged care home environment; establish an IPC model of governance, education and training and measures of performance that focuses on an IPC lead as a central coordinating figure; and evaluate infection and antimicrobial use surveillance and reporting specifically designed for residential aged care homes.
The research will be directly informed by the team’s extensive engagement with consumers with lived experience, including residential aged care home residents, carers, families and staff, and their existing research performed over the last three years across twelve residential aged care homes through a previous trial.
The research will be facilitated by close partnerships with BUPA and Royal Freemasons, which own over 30 residential aged care homes in Victoria. It will be delivered over two phases, with the first phase focused on developing a multi-faceted intervention for piloting across two residential aged care homes. A stepped-wedged cluster randomised control trial will then be planned across 10 residential aged care homes to evaluate the intervention.
Professor Peleg said that he was very pleased to receive the funding. “Our study will directly inform evidence-based interventions and optimised models of IPC-specific for residential aged care homes,” he said. “As a result, we hope to reduce infections and better protect a highly vulnerable segment of the population - older Australians living in residential aged care.”
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