At the 21st Annual Becker's ASC Conference in Chicago on Oct. 24, Marcia Patrick, RN, surveyor for the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, discussed how to ensure infection control programs will meet survey requirements.
First, ASCs need to tailor their infection control risk assessment to their own individual center, said Ms. Patrick. Such factors include populations served, types of procedures, personnel numbers and geographic location.
For example, in Tacoma, Wash., where Ms. Patrick is from, the presence of lahar, a type of volcanic debris, is in risk assessments because the Pacific Northwest is surrounded by volcanoes. Healthcare facilities in Iowa, for example, will have different environmental issues in their risk assessments.
To actually do the risk assessment, Ms. Patrick said the leadership needs to collaborate with all employees. "It's not your risk assessment," she said. "It's everybody's risk assessment."
Addressing current events and a question from the audience regarding Ebola, Ms. Patrick said factoring Ebola into the ASC risk assessment has a very low risk, though surgery centers could include it in their risk assessment.
"With ASCs, patients don't come in cold through the front door. They come from other facilities, referral based, whether it’s the doctors offices or primary care people who refer to your facility, so they're already screened before they come," Ms. Patrick said. "If I'm an ASC, I'm not going to go out and buy $100,000 worth of PPE. You call your patients ahead of time, and if you anticipate your patient may be coming from one of those high-risk countries, you may want to ask some additional questions."
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First, ASCs need to tailor their infection control risk assessment to their own individual center, said Ms. Patrick. Such factors include populations served, types of procedures, personnel numbers and geographic location.
For example, in Tacoma, Wash., where Ms. Patrick is from, the presence of lahar, a type of volcanic debris, is in risk assessments because the Pacific Northwest is surrounded by volcanoes. Healthcare facilities in Iowa, for example, will have different environmental issues in their risk assessments.
To actually do the risk assessment, Ms. Patrick said the leadership needs to collaborate with all employees. "It's not your risk assessment," she said. "It's everybody's risk assessment."
Addressing current events and a question from the audience regarding Ebola, Ms. Patrick said factoring Ebola into the ASC risk assessment has a very low risk, though surgery centers could include it in their risk assessment.
"With ASCs, patients don't come in cold through the front door. They come from other facilities, referral based, whether it’s the doctors offices or primary care people who refer to your facility, so they're already screened before they come," Ms. Patrick said. "If I'm an ASC, I'm not going to go out and buy $100,000 worth of PPE. You call your patients ahead of time, and if you anticipate your patient may be coming from one of those high-risk countries, you may want to ask some additional questions."