Antisepsis, Disinfection and Sterilization
Concurrent Education Session - 60 minutes
Lucas Starnes, PhD, RN
Infection Prevention Specialist
St. Louis Children's Hospital
Saint Louis, Missouri
Nothing to disclose
Amber Conrad, RN, BSN, CIC
Infection Prevention Specialist
BJC- Parkland Health Center
Farmington, Missouri
Nothing to disclose
Kathleen McMullen, MPH, CIC, FAPIC
Manage: Infection Prevention, Occupational Health, Wound Care
Christian Hospital
Saint Louis, Missouri
Pre-cleaning is described as the removal of visible gross blood, body fluids, and/or bio-burden in order to prevent hardening of debris or the development of biofilms on instruments due to processing delays. Pre-cleaning, at the point of use, is required when soiled items may not be immediately transported to a decontamination area. For pre-cleaning to be effective, items must remain moist while awaiting transport.
This session will cover the experiences of two separate facilities within one healthcare organization where it was determined that pre-cleaning was not being performed up to the expectations of The Joint Commission. In response to the identified gap, standard work documents (SWD) were developed to provide staff education and increase compliance with the safety requirements.
An IP from a large pediatric, academic hospital and an IP from a small community hospital will present their standard work documents and will discuss differences between the rollout at each facility. Implementation of the SWD at the larger facility relied heavily upon nurse educator groups for dissemination with the IP providing support when needed. In addition, the data analytics department built a smartphone-based audit tool that helped nursing unit management and IPs monitor compliance.
In contrast, the community hospital collaborated with an educator to develop education and ensured completion of education hospital-wide. Paper audit tools were established for the central sterile department to monitor process compliance. In both situations, there were similar struggles pertaining to staff compliance and maintaining the standard work.
Developing interventions is a key part of IPC, but the roll-out and execution of the intervention may require an even greater amount of time and effort. This session will help participants understand how to create an SWD that will positively impact pre-cleaning across their system.