Infection prevention and control is a high-priority item for ambulatory surgery centers, but it doesn't need to be an expensive venture. Tina Piotrowski, clinical director at Northwest Michigan Surgery Center in Traverse City, Mich., shares three ways ASCs can strengthen their infection control programs for pennies on the dollar.
1. Implement a good hand hygiene program. Simple hand-washing is the most inexpensive infection control practice and is also the most effective and powerful ways to reduce the incidence of healthcare-associated infections. Ms. Piotrowski says ASCs must educate and re-educate physicians and staff members on the importance of proper hand hygiene. Excellent hand hygiene programs should also be supplemented with peer monitoring, random auditing and positive reinforcement to encourage great hand hygiene practices. ASCs can also obtain cost-effective arrangements on hand hygiene supplies with various suppliers or through GPOs.
"Our surgery center periodically shops around for the best pricing on all of our products, and hand hygiene products such as soaps and hand sanitizers are included," Ms. Piotrowski says. "ASCs should make sure they are not purchasing something that could cause skin irritation, like dryness and cracking, which can cause staff members to use it less frequently."
One way to help make more informed decisions about hand hygiene products is trialing samples of several soaps and sanitizers, she adds.
2. Take advantage of free webinars on infection control. Knowledge is power, and that goes for infection control as well. Whoever is in charge of quarterbacking your ASC's infection control program — whether that is your director of nursing, administrator or infection control officer —should sign up and take advantage of the free educational resources and webinars on infection control. These webinars and other resources are often led by infection prevention experts in the healthcare industry.
"There are many different opportunities from industry leaders and national organizations on the topic of infection control, sterilization and other patient safety issues," Ms. Piotrowski says. "The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses is one of those organizations as well as APIC. Generally, there are free webinars available for members to take advantage of."
3. Utilize your vendors. Vendors are always vying for ongoing business, so why not take advantage of that business relationship by offering vendor representatives the opportunity to present infection control in-services for free? Vendors are often able to supply an expert voice on a wide range of patient safety or infection control topics, such as safe and proper use of medical equipment, needlestick safety, reprocessing equipment and more.
"We've used 3M as a vendor for some of our products, and so we have one of their representatives come in and do a very thorough infection prevention in-service," Ms. Piotrowski says. "Since we already have a business arrangement with them, we're never really obligated to pay for those in-services in the interest of maintaining good customer service."
Learn more about Northwest Michigan Surgery Center.
Editor's note: To receive the new, free Becker's ASC-Hospital Clinical Quality & Infection Control E-Weekly, click here or e-mail rob@beckersasc.com.
1. Implement a good hand hygiene program. Simple hand-washing is the most inexpensive infection control practice and is also the most effective and powerful ways to reduce the incidence of healthcare-associated infections. Ms. Piotrowski says ASCs must educate and re-educate physicians and staff members on the importance of proper hand hygiene. Excellent hand hygiene programs should also be supplemented with peer monitoring, random auditing and positive reinforcement to encourage great hand hygiene practices. ASCs can also obtain cost-effective arrangements on hand hygiene supplies with various suppliers or through GPOs.
"Our surgery center periodically shops around for the best pricing on all of our products, and hand hygiene products such as soaps and hand sanitizers are included," Ms. Piotrowski says. "ASCs should make sure they are not purchasing something that could cause skin irritation, like dryness and cracking, which can cause staff members to use it less frequently."
One way to help make more informed decisions about hand hygiene products is trialing samples of several soaps and sanitizers, she adds.
2. Take advantage of free webinars on infection control. Knowledge is power, and that goes for infection control as well. Whoever is in charge of quarterbacking your ASC's infection control program — whether that is your director of nursing, administrator or infection control officer —should sign up and take advantage of the free educational resources and webinars on infection control. These webinars and other resources are often led by infection prevention experts in the healthcare industry.
"There are many different opportunities from industry leaders and national organizations on the topic of infection control, sterilization and other patient safety issues," Ms. Piotrowski says. "The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses is one of those organizations as well as APIC. Generally, there are free webinars available for members to take advantage of."
3. Utilize your vendors. Vendors are always vying for ongoing business, so why not take advantage of that business relationship by offering vendor representatives the opportunity to present infection control in-services for free? Vendors are often able to supply an expert voice on a wide range of patient safety or infection control topics, such as safe and proper use of medical equipment, needlestick safety, reprocessing equipment and more.
"We've used 3M as a vendor for some of our products, and so we have one of their representatives come in and do a very thorough infection prevention in-service," Ms. Piotrowski says. "Since we already have a business arrangement with them, we're never really obligated to pay for those in-services in the interest of maintaining good customer service."
Learn more about Northwest Michigan Surgery Center.
Editor's note: To receive the new, free Becker's ASC-Hospital Clinical Quality & Infection Control E-Weekly, click here or e-mail rob@beckersasc.com.
