Two unannounced inspections at Tallaght Hospital this summer found poor infection controls, poor maintenance of patient equipment in the areas inspected and poor hand hygiene.
The inspections were carried out by the Health Information and Quality Authority in July and August of this year.
In July, the inspection found there were "insufficient Clinical Microbiology resources in place to routinely enable a timely response ... in the treatment of patients with serious infections who present to the hospital".
HIQA said this represented a high risk to patients and was not in line with standards.
However, the hospital has recruited a new microbiologist who was due to start this month and has submitted a business case for a substantive microbiologist post to the HSE.
During the July inspection, HIQA found that several items of frequently used patient equipment, including a commode, hoists, and vital signs monitors, were "unclean" and posed an infection risk.
HIQA said it was informed that there were reduced resources for cleaning patient equipment on the ward immediately prior to the inspection.
A follow-up inspection in August found that cleanliness of patient equipment on the ward had improved considerably.
But in its report HIQA said that deficits evidenced in the monitoring and auditing of environmental hygiene is a concern.
It recommended that Tallaght Hospital review its systems and processes relating to the monitoring, management and maintenance of the physical environment and all equipment to assure its compliance with Standard 3 of the Infection Prevention and Control Standards.
HIQA said that improvements are needed on hand hygiene.
It noted that: "Tallaght Hospital has failed to meet the national targets set by the HSE for 2012, 2013 and the most recent audit in May 2014.
"There is an extensive internal hand hygiene audit programme within the hospital which demonstrates a higher compliance that what has been achieved in the national hand hygiene audits.
"However, the records show that a significant number of wards do not achieve the 90% national target, which indicates that hand hygiene best practice is not yet embedded at all levels throughout the hospital.
"Compliance with hand hygiene training has improved from previous years and the hospital has demonstrated a commitment to achieving 100% compliance with all staff by the end of 2014."
In a statement this afternoon, Tallaght Hospital said it accepts the findings of the report, but said the hospital is a safe one with "robust monitoring programmes in place covering infection control, hand hygiene and environmental management.
"The hospital responded speedily to HIQA to clarify some issues raised as well as to outline the remedial actions taken on foot of the July inspection – covering both staffing and processes.
"We note that HIQA has clearly acknowledged positive progress in its follow up inspection in August."
The hospital added that any outstanding issues will be resolved in the coming weeks.
