Summary: The Infection Control Manager

| UNIT 4222- 264 THE PRINCIPLES OF INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL | | | |

1. Explain employees’ roles and responsibilities in relation to the prevention and control of infection.

Epidemiology defined: The basic science of public health in which the causing factor, population, frequency, and relevant intervention is found in the case of an outbreak.

Epidemiology – the science that studies when and where diseases occur and how they are transmitted. CDC, Atlanta, tracks and traces diseases. ONE World (the idea that it’s all in one place, it could happen anywhere; locally, states, large counties track the incidences and occurrences of disease)

Descriptive epidemiology focus on how a disease is spread within a population. This can be done in three different approaches such as counts, case series, and cross-sectional studies. The observation of the Amish population in Lancaster, PA favors the application of the cross sectional method of descriptive epidemiology.

The study of disease transmission is the review and examination of the examples, causes, and impacts of wellbeing and illness conditions in characterized populaces. It is the foundation of general wellbeing, and shapes strategy choices and confirmation based practice by recognizing hazard variables for ailment and focuses for preventive human services. ("Epidemiology - Wikipedia," n.d.)

This plan involves preventing future HAIs from happening to prevent further costs. HAIs have been estimated to cost twenty-eight to forty-five billion in excess healthcare costs (Zimlichman et al., 2013). Effective evidence based practice for infection control must be in place and all employees must comply. Healthcare administrators should use evidence based practice to implement these infection controls and make sure there are checks and balances to ensure every employee is complying with the guidelines. In addition, the healthcare administrator must make sure that the organization receives every dollar that their healthcare organization should receive from the insurance company to prevent any more loss financially. To get payment from The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), hospitals are required to report data about some infections to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) ("Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) data", 2016). In addition, CMS has provided incentives for hospital that beat averages of HAIs at healthcare organizations. The healthcare administrator must make sure they report to the CDC’s NHSN and prevent future HAIs. Also, the administrator should thoroughly and routinely check to make sure the insurance company properly reimburses the right amount to the healthcare organization. If the healthcare administrator implements procedures to provided infection control based on evidence based practice and monitors the reimbursement process properly following correct procedures, the administrator can help the healthcare organization reduce future costs for

There are three common types of epidemiology: social, descriptive, and analytical. Social is the division of epidemiology that investigates the social distribution and social factors of health and disease. Descriptive describes the distribution of disease death and other health outcomes in the population according to person, place, and time. Giving a representation of how things are or have been the who, when, where of disease patterns. Analytical looks for the causes of the patterns viewed the how and why. The descriptive and analytical studies are observational, which means the researcher observes occurrences as they are or have been and does not obstruct to change anything or initiate a new factor.

The participating States’ have public health department that were created by mandate to supervise the prevention, surveillance and reporting of healthcare-acquired infections. According to the article “National Action Plan to Prevent Health Care-Associated Infections: Road Map to Elimination.” There is a Federal Steering Committee for the Prevention of Health Care-Associated Infections. Members include clinicians, scientists, and public health leaders who are high-ranking officials from the HHS, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Labor, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. These different federal agencies come together to discuss new approach to HAI prevention. Patients also take part in HAI prevention meetings (Office of Disease

At the hospital where I currently work at Paoli Memorial Hospital their infection control programs first began in the 1950s, where the primary focus of these programs was to prevent their hospital from any outbreaks. According to the history from my job, in 1970, the infection control underwent a growth spurt. By 1970, all United States hospitals were required to have infection control program. By 1976, Paoli hospitals had their version of what they wanted their infection control program to consist of; they included trained nurses to perform active surveillance. In 1982, the Paoli Hospital Infections Control Branch was formed, and the Association for Practitioners

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in conjunction with the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and the Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) has recommended four main classifications of precautions that must be followed: standard, airborne droplet, and contact. Health care facilities are provided with a list of infections/conditions that show the type and duration of precautions needed for each specific disease. This way, facilities can follow the guidelines to determine the type of transmission based isolation that should be used. Standard precautions are used on all patients. Health care workers must follow the recommendations for the use of gloves, gowns, and face masks when conditions indicate their use. Airborne precautions are used for patients known or suspected to be infected with pathogens transmitted by airborne droplet nuclei. These are small particles of evaporated droplets that contain microorganisms and remain suspended in the air or on dust particles. Droplet precautions must be followed for patient known or suspected to be infected with pathogens transmitted by large-particle droplets expelled during coughing, sneezing talking or laughing. Finally, contact precautions must be followed for any patients known or suspected to be infected with epidemiological

This paper will explore the role of epidemiology in the surveillance of the incidence of

The job of epidemiologist is to analyze trends in health, and implement control measures. This causes them to fill in several roles within a team. Their expertise in control measures allows them to take on the role of specialist in health behavior and promotion. Meanwhile, their analysis of trends allows them to understand exposure science and biostatistics, which will help them to work well with the other team members. Very often epidemiologist also play a role in forming public health policy as subject matter experts. In this case, they will help the expert in exposure science with health education and promotion. Next, they will help determine if there is a reason the causative agent is or is not showing statistical significance. For example, if the causative agent was not significant, the epidemiologist might suggest a co-factor that is skewing the numbers to help the biostatistician to create the most precise numbers, and ensure the correct questions are being

University Infection Control and Prevention (UICP). Initially supported by a grant from the University of Chicago’s Department of Medicine, UICP offers local and regional hospitals and other facilities outreach programs in infection control and prevention. Tailored to the specific needs of participating institutions, UICP provides a new and intensive approach to infection control, focusing on location-specific priorities to develop an individualized plan that is evidence-based, sustainable, and integrated with routine operations. Specific services offered by UICP include: 1) Institutional risk assessment and gap analysis. 2) Support for outbreak investigation. 3) Staff education and mentoring programs. 4) Assistance with local performance-improvement

The main purpose/focus of analytic epidemiology is to thoroughly research, analyze and/or test predictions and possibilities of exposures to diseases as well as hypothesis outcomes.. The analytic area of epidemiology focuses on answering the why and how questions. This method/area helps determine what caused the disease. Two main factors are exposure and outcome. The two primary categories that the analytic method utilizes is experimental and observational studies to test the hypothesis. Experimental studies generally include randomized clinical trials. One example of this would be vaccine efficacy trials. The observational studies can be one of three different types, case control, cohort and cross sectional. The method that is used is always