Topic 4 DQ 2
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), and the Joint Commission (JC) require that health care organizations maintain risk management programs to address infection control. Detail three measures that your health care organization (or any health care organization) could implement, beyond what is currently in practice, to support the delivery of safe health care services and avoid the spread of infection (e.g., placing hand washing devices at all of the public entrances of the health care facility). Support your response with a minimum of two peer-reviewed references.
Hospitals engage in numerous initiatives to improve infection control and provide safer care to their patients, but in the never-ending fight against increasingly virulent organisms, hospitals are looking for more effective ways to protect patients from infections. Health care workers can take the standard precaution steps to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Standard precautions are meant to reduce the risk of transmission of bloodborne and other pathogens from both recognized and unrecognized sources.
Hand hygiene is a major component of standard precautions and one of the most effective methods to prevent transmission of pathogens associated with health care. Hand hygiene should be performed all the time before and after any direct patient contact and between patients, whether or not gloves are worn and immediately after gloves are removed.
Personal protective equipment should be guided by risk assessment and the extent of contact anticipated with blood and body fluids, or pathogens.
Respiratory hygiene/cough etiquette/mask mandate, developed during the COVID-19 and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, is now considered as part of standard precautions. Universal masking is required for all patients, visitors, and health care workers in the health care setting.
Environmental cleaning is an important part of infection control. Use adequate procedures for the routine cleaning and disinfection of environmental and other frequently touched surfaces.
Waste disposal would be done properly. Treat waste contaminated with blood, body fluids, secretions and excretions as clinical waste, in accordance with local regulations.
In addition to the standard precautions healthcare organizations can implement some new ways for infection control.
Education. Healthcare professionals need to be educated and periodically reinforce their knowledge through seminars and workshops to ensure high understanding of how to prevent communicable diseases transmission.
Consider the strategies to prevent patients who can be cared for at home from coming to your facility potentially exposing themselves or others to germs, like using hospital telephone system to deliver to incoming callers about when to seek medical care at the facility.
Separate patients with fever, respiratory symptoms, or other symptoms so they are not waiting among other patients seeking care.
Environmental Hygiene. Newer methods including steam, antimicrobial surfaces, automated dispersal systems, sterilization techniques and disinfectants have a better effect in limiting transmission of pathogens through the surrounding environment
The protective benefits of infection control using evidence-based practices are cost effective and numerous: they not only contribute to the best individual patient care outcome, but also protect health care workers, increase public awareness in all health care settings about infection control issues, and maintain the highest standards in nursing, which positively contributes to our goal for the best possible patient and public health outcomes.