Interprofessional Governance Of Infection Risks Across The Patient Journey: A Critical Narrative Review Integrating Clinical, Diagnostic, Sterile Processing, Biomedical Equipment, And Administrative Responsibilities

Abstract

Healthcare-associated infection prevention depends on coordinated work across services that frequently operate with separate policies, information systems, and reporting relationships. Infection risks can accumulate when patients, specimens, diagnostic results, reusable devices, and responsibility move

between departments. This review examines how interprofessional governance can connect nursing, pharmacy, laboratory medicine, radiology, sterile processing, biomedical equipment services, and health administration acrossthe patient journey.

A targeted critical narrative review was undertaken using twenty publications from 2022–2025, supplemented by World Health Organization guidance and methodological literature. Bibliographic records and abstracts were verified through indexed sources; accessible full texts informed interpretation where available. Evidence was examined according to journey stage, professional responsibility, communication requirements, organizational conditions, and the distinction between process measures and clinical outcomes. The review involved no participant recruitment, institutional dataset, intervention, statistical testing, or quantitative pooling.

The synthesis generated a proposed governance framework linking risk recognition, explicit ownership, acknowledged communication, action, closure, and organizational learning. Four connected analytical domains organize the findings: diagnostic information and antimicrobial decisions; device use, decontamination, and technical readiness; workforce capability and local work conditions; and leadership, resources, and escalation. The literature supports attention to these domains, but does not establish the effectiveness of the proposed cross-professional framework. Microbial contamination, compliance, diagnostic turnaround, and clinical infection are treated as distinct outcomes rather than interchangeable measures of success.

The review concludes that infection prevention should be governed at the interfaces between services as well as within individual departments. Recommendations concern shared handover requirements, coordinated education, equipment and reprocessing compatibility, protected escalation, patient participation, and proportionate information access. The framework provides an evidence-informed basis for policy discussion and subsequent evaluation; it does not justify a numerical prediction of infection reduction or a claim of demonstrated institutional improvement.