What Does “Infection Control” Really Mean and What’s an Infection Preventionist?

This blog was written and produced by Karen Donovan, Director of Clinical Operations at Beacon Solutions. Looking to get in touch with Karen? Reach out today: kdonovan@BeaconSolutionsGroup.com.

Infection Prevention and Control is a type of procedure that is carried out with the intent of preventing the transmission of communicable diseases by assessing, planning, implementing, and evaluating an operation’s infection control policies. Infection preventionists are experts on practical methods of preventing and controlling the spread of infectious diseases, typically within a specific population—the patients, staff, and visitors at a hospital or other health care setting.

Infections can cause patients serious illness, or even death. In fact, prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, on average approximately 75,000 people die each year from healthcare-associated infections (HAI’s); yet half of all HAI’s are preventable. As a medical provider, you need to ensure you are doing everything possible to prevent the spread of infection, both to ensure patient health and to meet CMS guidelines entitling you to be fully reimbursed by Medicare.

Formal Infection Prevention programs allow us to assess our environment and identify the risk factors present. It then assists in customizing solutions and fosters education/training for those impacted within the setting to prevent the spread of infection. Finally, these programs then rely on the “science” of infectious processes and utilize data collection and tracking to keep the spread of infection in check.

With recent events and the subsequent onslaught of regulation and governance, Healthcare organizations and providers alike need solutions to be organized and stay ahead of the curve. Beacon Solutions’ Infection Preventionist Program does just that – click here to learn more.

Is Infection Prevention Just for Healthcare Settings?

Unfortunately, we all know in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that infection control is important to all facets of life but particularly, and regardless of health status, anywhere people congregate. In today’s world, we all have heightened respect for and a greater need to understand good infection control practices. While everyone is still quite busy figuring out “social distancing” and how to manage office protocol, the Beacon Solutions’ Infection Prevention Team is able to assess the non-clinical setting as well! Let our experts provide good infection control practice to your workplace and help educate the workforce to use the same safety standards used in the healthcare setting to operate and maintain in their individual and common workspaces.

The Beacon Infection Prevention team can assist in developing your practices and formalizes your policies to support. They offer education to every aspect including how infections spread, how to prevent them in the workplace, and even interactive demonstrations of handwashing, cleaning, or sanitization techniques.

The information and advice we are providing for this matter relates to COVID-19 legislative relief measures. Because legislative efforts are still ongoing, we expect that there may be additional guidance and clarification from regulators that could modify some of the advice and information provided to you, after the conclusion of our engagement. We, therefore, make no warranties, expressed or implied, on the services provided hereunder.