PUBLIC HEALTH & INFECTION CONTROL:
How Does Your EVS Team Rate?

Crothall’s EVS teams join our clients on the front lines in the battle to protect the public from infectious diseases, such as SARS and MDR-TB, through thorough planning and training of clinical and non-clinical staff members.

It is no secret that hospitals and other healthcare facilities participate in extensive and thorough pre-planning for a public health crisis.What many fail to recognize is how important non-clinical areas of the organization are to the successful management of just such an occurrence. Environmental Services, Patient Transportation, and Facilities Engineering and Maintenance must all be part of a comprehensive infection control plan in order to successfully protect all of us from harm.

The First Step-
Planning & Training

While planning at the administrative level is important for the management of a potential pandemic, ultimately what occurs at the patient level will determine the success of the outcome. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is imperative that each organization's plan include multidisciplinary coordinated teams. This includes epidemiology and infection control leadership, but also administration, clinical, communications, security, environmental, and engineering representation as well.

When planning for an isolation area, it is important to be sure that the following is considered:

• Airborne isolation capacity exists
• Location of necessary equipment and supplies
• Placement of waste and linen receptacles
• Establishment of traffic and work patterns that facilitate containment
• Transportation protocols for infected patients
• Physical barriers erected to ensure containment
• PPE equipment location and restocking

Both clinical and non-clinical staff members must receive appropriate training based upon the organization's infection control plan. Universal precautions must be stressed, along with training in the use of PPE and other hygiene equipment provided to personnel. Specialized training for healthcare workers performing aerosol-generating procedures, as well as for designated Environmental Services staff,must be made available and practiced on an ongoing basis. Crothall provides extensive infection control to each of our employees and has recently created an Infection Control Committee that will continually monitor not only training, but also regularly review policies and procedures, making necessary changes as warranted.

Crothall's Experience Protects the Public

Several times in the past five years, Crothall personnel have been involved in the support of facilities facing health crises. Most recently, the EVS teams sprang into action when the first U.S. Government-ordered quarantine since 1963 took place at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA.

A man with a dangerous form of TB was placed in isolation after completing a trans-continental journey that took him through at least three countries and several long plane rides. Tuberculosis is a disease that can be transmitted from person to person through the air, and is normally treated with antibiotics. In this case, the patient was infected with MDR-TB, which is extensively resistant to many of the drugs known to be effective against other forms of the disease. The actions of all of Grady's personnel, both clinical and support-based,were crucial to the successful containment of the disease.

"We knew what we had to do in order to ensure the safety of the patients, staff, and public in this situation," said Debby Biller, EVS Manager. "We fell back on the plan that was established in conjunction with the team at Grady, and got to work making sure that there was a consistent level of service throughout the length of this particular patient's stay."

Isolation cleaning consisted of daily and terminal cleaning by the appointed EVS staff, and included such things as bedrails, tables, trays, toilets and bathroom fixtures, knobs, and any other exposed surfaces. All patient care equipment was cleaned on a continual basis, and was thoroughly disinfected prior to removal from the isolation unit. All waste was considered infectious and was disposed of according to the hospital's infectious waste policy.

Along with the negative ventilation protocol that was initiated by the facilities team at Grady, Crothall supplied two CIMR air and surface ventilators. Designed to kill more than 90% of all airborne viruses and bacteria within an hour, this system is one of the most efficient means available to stop the spread of infection within clinical settings. According to Bobby Kutteh, CEO of Crothall Services Group,"This situation was one in which we wanted to assist in any way that we could. Supplying access to the CIMR technology was a logical approach to meeting this public health threat."