Abstract
Objectives: This study examined dental hygienists’ performance of infection control in relation to the accreditation program for healthcare organizations and analyzed the relationships among these variables. Methods: The survey was administered to dental hygienists who worked at dental institutions from May 18 to 31, 2020 using Google's online survey system. The study used a modified questionnaire based on previous studies; it consisted of questions about healthcare accreditation and performance of infection control. Results: About 65% of respondents said they didn’t know about healthcare accreditation, while only 32.4% of respondents worked at accredited dental institutions and 30.5% of respondents had experience with healthcare accreditation. There was a significant positive correlation among education level, affiliated dental institution, accreditation status, experience, and awareness of healthcare accreditation. Furthermore, the performance of infection control of dental hygienists who worked at accredited dental institutions was better than that of dental hygienists who worked at non-accredited dental institutions (p＜0.05). Conclusions: Performance of infection control by dental hygienists is highly enhanced depending on the accreditation status of their affiliated dental institution. As such, there is a need to raise awareness on healthcare accreditation in dental hygienists and to extend healthcare accreditation to dental clinics for improved infection control.