Outbreak Investigation, Public Health and Health Policy
30/30 Education Session - 30 minutes
Marie Wilson, RN, CIC
Manager, Infection Prevention & Control
Methodist Dallas Medical Center
Dallas, Texas
Nothing to disclose
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.