For ambulatory surgery centers, protecting patients from infection during surgery is a top priority. Of course, it starts with the healthcare workers themselves, but ASC managers can take some steps to help prevent the prevalence of intraoperative surgical infection.
In some cases, in-services, repeated reinforcement of training, and punitive measures are not effective. Here are eight other ways that you can prevent infection that are more effective than the older methods.
Consider Staff Input
Your staff members have a wealth of information about how the infection control policies work to actually control infection. Talking to them, taking a survey, or holding an open meeting may lead to insights that you would not have realized on your own. In addition, take some staff members aside and ask about infection control in the operating room.
Ask if protocols are being followed, but more importantly, ask them if they have any ideas for improvement. Take these into serious consideration because they are often better ideas than management could ever have.
Understand the Realities of Infection Control
Infection control is a difficult proposition for staffers and management alike. No one wants to see a patient suffer an infection, but expecting that there will be no infection is unrealistic. In addition, the more protocols that are placed on the staff to decrease infection rates may lead them to ignoring the orders or exposing hidden ways the protocols cause surgical infection. You also need to realize that your workers are doing everything they can to prevent infections. Most healthcare workers are fastidious about their infection control. It is up to the manager to determine what is a high percentage of infection and what is not, because there will always be some percentage.
Employ Lean Management Tactics
Protocols and standards are usually the tactics employed by ASC managers to help decrease surgical infections, but this can create more problems. First, it severely taxes staff to adhere to twenty protocols while they do their work. This could lead to missing a step that may prevent the spread of infection. Second, protocols don’t always work.
They may seem like a great idea when you implement them, but they are not helpful in the real world. Try to make infection control procedures as simple and safe as possible so that your workers can do their jobs and protect the patient.
Have Universal Standards for Surgical Asepsis
When techniques are done the same way every time, it is more likely that steps are not skipped. Although overdoing it with universal protocols is not the way to effectively manage surgical infection, you do need protocols in place that adhere to the universal standards for infection control. Your workers should be trained in the skills at least once per year and attend in-services on infection control as often as possible.
Help Improve Case Communication between Healthcare Workers
Communication is key when it comes to running an ASC, and this means that all healthcare staff need to know what the particulars are for their patients. When information isn’t shared, then the patient could be in danger of getting an infection. For instance, a patient with diabetes is obviously at more risk for infection than another patient. All staff should know this so that they can take extra precautions in caring for the patient and preventing infection.
Offer Incentives for Improvement in Infection Statistics
Staffers are usually motivated by incentives. Your best course of action is to offer a facility wide bonus for infection statistics below a certain level. Even if it is an extra $50 or $100, this is a way to motivate staff to watch their infection control procedures closely.
You can also offer awards and recognition to the nurses and doctors who have the lowest surgical infection rate. By incentivizing the process, you make the staff part of the solution. They are much more willing to help and lower rates when they can receive some form of recognition for their hard work.
Research and Share Best Practices among Staff
Best practices change all the time as new evidenced based research is revealed. It is the manager’s job to keep up to date on the latest developments and help staff to implement them in the facility. Although many healthcare workers do keep up with research, they may not follow infection control specifically. If it is a problem in your ASC, though, then you need to ensure that you are following the most recent best practices.
This is especially true for the more experienced members of your staff who may be set in following standards in ways that are outdated. Informing them of the new research could help cut down on their surgical infection rate.
Create an Infection Control Advisory Council
A council of doctors, nurses, and managers should be created to discuss the state of infection control procedures in the ASC. This will give you a chance to share the best practices and to ask for frontline recommendations from the group. You can also designate them as the people in the facility who are experts in infection control and can be a resource for other staffers. This establishes a link between the manager and the healthcare workers that is far more formal and effective than simply talking about the issue in a meeting. A dedicated committee of staffers who care about infection control can help to lower rates and keep patients safe.
You are reading an article provided by Sports and Spine Orthopaedics, a fully staffed ASC and sports medicine facility in Los Angeles with board certified surgeons. They have been helping patients with minimally invasive surgery procedures in the Los Angeles area for nearly 10 years and can also be found on twitter and facebook.
