The five-day infection control workshop was held by the St. Jude infectious diseases – international outreach team (ID – IO team) in collaboration with the POEM group. The meeting’s talks and presentations covered infection care and prevention in pediatric oncology, the infectious syndromes in pediatric cancer, and optimizing blood cultures. Moreover, the importance of using validated tools for assessing the safety of a healthcare institution (where a pediatric oncology service is delivered), and the results of the newly developed tool (ICAT-ONCO) were also discussed.
Finally, a summary of the infection control practices among POEM centers was presented in addition to an individualized report that was completed by POEM centers concluding the below:
- The lack of solid hand hygiene programs requires a plan to improve hand hygiene practices following the World Health Organization (WHO) multimodal strategy.
- The POEM Board of Directors will develop a written commitment from the POEM members that will also include a section that requires centers to participate in further infection control assessments.
- Encouraging the involvement of a multidisciplinary team at each center to further assess Infection control data quality.
