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Make support staff part of infection control

Briefings on Infection Control, April 1, 2009

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Although plenty of IC training and practices focus on clinical procedures, a substantial part of preventing healthcare-associated infections relies on staff members without an MD or RN at the end of their name. The support services area of IC, including housekeeping and the janitorial staff, plays a significant behind-the-scenes role in protecting patients and staff members from infections. Northumberland Hills Hospital in Cobourg, a community in Ontario, Canada, recognized this. The hospital also realized that without proper training and education, support services staff members would not be able to sufficiently fulfill their duties, and IC would suffer as a result. Which is why Northumberland created the Support Services Infection Control Framework, a new program designed to train and educate the housekeeping and janitorial sections of the hospital on the importance of IC and the role they play. Essentially, the facility didn’t do anything other hospitals were neglecting; it simply standardized the approach and process to ensure that support staff members were receiving the proper training. After a vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) outbreak in 2007, it became apparent that a more detailed and consistent approach to cleaning needed to be implemented, says  Bev Adamson, RD, director of materials management and food services at Northumberland. “Room cleanliness is definitely a factor in the transmission of infections,” Adamson says. “Organisms can survive on surfaces for days or weeks. Therefore, a thorough cleaning of all rooms must be done daily.” In November 2008, the program was featured as a leading practice in the Ontario Hospital Association’s

Patient Safety: Leading Practice in Ontario, Improvements, Ideas and Innovations, 2008 booklet.

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