Improving infection prevention in the outpatient setting
There are various ways in which infection prevention can be improved in the outpatient setting. As with most patient safety initiatives, leadership plays a critical role. In addition to engagement, patient safety becomes a core value when leadership puts in the time and effort to develop standardized procedures and define staff responsibilities for the following:
- Cleaning protocols
- Equipment disinfection
- Specimen handling
- Ongoing infection prevention education
- Competency validation and monitoring
- Nonpunitive reporting of risks or near misses
“The key strategy to improve intelligent compliance is helping staff understand the risks in their setting, followed by educating them on the prevention and control measures in place,” says Ivan W. Gowe, MS, MLS(ASCP)CM, CIC, FAPIC, CPHQ, an infection preventionist in North Carolina.
Understanding the risks allows staff to be better prepared to identify infection sources, ensure safety protocol compliance, reduce infections, and contribute to policies and standards regarding infection prevention. To help give context to the importance of infection prevention protocols, provide staff with an explanation of how physicians’ offices or urgent care centers may now be the first stop for infectious patients.
Editor’s note: This article was excerpted from our Patient Safety Monitor Journal newsletter.