Outbreak Investigation, Public Health and Health Policy

30/30 Education Session - 30 minutes

2206 - On the Frontline: Preparing Your Healthcare System for the Next High Consequence Infectious Disease

Primary Speaker(s)

• 

  Marie Wilson, RN, CIC

  Manager, Infection Prevention & Control
  Methodist Dallas Medical Center
  Dallas, Texas

  Nothing to disclose

Moderator(s)

• 

  Beth Wallace, MPH, CIC, FAPIC

  Senior Director, System Infection Prevention & Epidemiology
  Beaumont Health
  Rochester Hills, Michigan

  Nothing to disclose

There is little room for error in the detection and treatment of patients with high-consequence infectious diseases from the standpoints of patient and staff safety and public relations. IPs and public health officials are heavily relied upon for answers during these high-stress times.

This session will discuss the strategies a facility must use to enhance their capacity to competently recognize and respond to at-risk patients. Methods discussed will focus on the IPs need to work with a multi-disciplinary team to assess current response strategies, providing an example of one healthcare system's experience planning, executing, and following up on opportunities for improvement in their preparedness.

Participants will learn about a valuable tool that can be used for this assessment: full-scale exercises. Full-scale exercises guide after-action work, including policy and procedure development and refinement. Discussed in this session will be publicly available tools to assist in the design and implementation of the exercise, opportunities to maximize readiness assessment through a split drill between live and table-top portions, and key internal and external partners to include for a successful drill. This healthcare system’s exercise objectives and outcomes will be reviewed, as well as, subsequent after-action responses that included changes to policies and procedures as a result.

Learning Objectives:

• Upon completion, participants will be able to identify and utilize publicly available tools for the development and implementation of an infection prevention emergency response full-scale exercise.
• Upon completion, participants will be able to identify key internal and external partners to include in the planning and implementation of an infection prevention emergency response full-scale exercise.
• Upon completion, participants will be able to design an effective method for assessing their facility’s readiness to respond in an infection prevention emergency.