from the June 1, 2010 issue of Connect

Accreditation 2010 – Your Role in Infection Control

Accreditation education sessions at Women’s College Hospital have begun! To help you Show What You Know, the accreditation team is holding five special information sessions over the coming months that focus on themes critical to the services within the hospital.

Kicking it off is Infection Prevention and Control. Hosted by Sonja Cobham, the first education session is entitled Infection Control: Do you know how we maintain a sanitary environment?

This session will concentrate on three key learning areas: hand washing, reprocessing of medical equipment and environmental cleaning.

Infection prevention and control is an important component of Women’s College Hospital’s Patient Safety Program. It focuses on strategies to protect staff, physicians, patients and volunteers from exposure to infections. And it is everyone’s responsibility.

Nursing managers, environmental services, occupational health and safety, directors of medical services, senior administration and other departments all play a role in keeping infection under control.

Several steps have been put in place to ensure everyone is doing their part. For example, the environmental services department is currently reviewing its procedures to ensure it is compliant with standardized infection prevention and control guidelines. The central sterile reprocessing department is also involved in preventing the spread of infection by following strict procedures for cleaning and sterilizing medical instruments.

Infection Prevention and Control also: 

• provides staff and patients with education on how to reduce the risk of transmission of infectious agents
• regularly reviews policies and procedures to ensure they reflect current best practices
• conducts risk assessments of areas undergoing construction and renovations to ensure that appropriate measures are used to protect patients and staff from disease

Education sessions will be provided to staff in all departments across the hospital and have been co-ordinated through your manager.

It’s one more way to get you ready to Show What You Know!

For more information about Infection Prevention and Control, please contact Sonja Cobham at ext. 3102 or Sonja.Cobham@wchospital.ca.

To learn more about Accreditation, click here.