Objective To explore the effect of “net bottom” management in the control of device-associated infections (DAIs) in elderly patients by setting infection monitoring doctors and nurses in the emergency intensive care unit (EICU). Methods Elderly patients who aged≥60 years old admitted to the EICU of the First People’s Hospital of Lianyungang between April 2018 and March 2021 were selected as the research subjects. A “net bottom” management mode was established and implemented for the purpose of infection prevention and control, taking medical and other departments as the coordination and management subjects, and infection monitoring doctors and nurses as the core. The effectiveness of the management intervention was evaluated by comparing the incidences of DAIs in elderly patients, the compliance rates of medical staff in hand hygiene, and the consumption of hand sanitizer per bed day in EICU among the primary stage (from April 2018 to March 2019), intermediate stage (from April 2019 to March 2020), and later stage (from April 2020 to March 2021). Results During the primary stage, intermediate stage, and later stage, there were 540, 497, and 507 elderly inpatients in EICU monitored, respectively, and the incidences of nosocomial infections were 7.22% (39/540), 5.84% (29/497), and 4.14% (21/507), respectively, showing a decreasing trend (χ2trend=4.557, P=0.033). The incidences of ventilator-associated pneumonia, central line-associated bloodstream infections, and catheter-associated urinary tract infections decreased from 4.82‰, 2.53‰, and 0.95‰, respectively in the primary stage, to 0.51‰, 1.01‰, and 0.53‰, respectively in the later stage, among which the difference in the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia was statistically significant (P<0.05). The hand hygiene compliance rate of EICU medical staff increased from 70.39% to 86.67% (P<0.05), and the consumption of hand sanitizer per bed day increased from 33.70 mL to 67.27 mL. The quarterly hand hygiene compliance rate was positively correlated with the quarterly consumption of hand sanitizer per bed day (rs=0.846, P=0.001), and negatively correlated with the quarterly incidence of nosocomial infections (rs=–0.769, P=0.003). Conclusion The “net bottom” management by setting up infection monitoring doctors and nurses in the EICU and multi-department collaboration can reduce the incidence of DAIs in elderly patients in EICU, which plays a positive role in promoting the hospital infection management and improving the quality of hospital infection management.