Healthcare Hygiene magazine February_2020 | Page 28

performance improvement project guide, and a toolbox
of necessary resources to gain alignment, communication,
and sustained focus towards sustaining gains at healthcare
facilities that implement the Playbook.
The project guide followed a self-assessment performed
by the EVS department in each participating hospital.
The self-assessment would be followed by developing an
improvement plan and use the Playbook as a guide for
implementing the plan. The Project started with a multidisci-
plinary kick-off event and site visit by IP/EVS experts from the
project team. It featured educational presentations, including
information regarding the AHE certification programs, tools,
and resources.
The updated project includes training and online resources
to support reliable cleaning and disinfection in health care
facilities. The Playbook is in place at 10 hospitals across the
U.S. and one in Kenya, Africa.
The long-term goal is sharing the ES Optimization
Playbook throughout IP and ES communities to facilitate
project replication at other hospitals to improve patient
outcomes and lower cost of care.
ESOP© advisors recently shared their perspectives about
the relationships between IP and ES, and how the two could
work together to produce better IP outcomes.
“I saw firsthand the benefit of engaging with environmen-
tal services when I did several projects in my Kaiser career,”
says Sue Barnes. “I always felt that EVS is the most excellent
audience for any infection prevention presentation. They’re
still engaged, they’re eager to learn, willing to change things
and very vocal if they don’t agree. And so, I always learn
something from them.
She adds, “In my experience, the EVS teams are sometimes
looked at as being lower on the totem pole, especially in an
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environment that also houses world-renowned surgeons.
But the value they bring to the table is crucial—especially
when it comes to infection prevention.”
“The participation of environmental services on an
infection control committee is one way that the partnership
between EVS and IP requires strengthening,” Barnes says.
Implementing New Practices and Facing New
Challenges
The ESOP© Project readily recognized that having an
executive champion, a person with wide-spread influence,
who understood the critical role that EVS plays in infection
prevention is essential.
“Honestly, it’s all about competing priorities when
describing executive pain points and the lack of focus on EVS
in infection prevention,” Barnes says. “If executives had a
better understanding of how important EVS practices are to
infection prevention, and how foundational to the patient’s
outcome and safety a hygienic environment is, then they
would likely prioritize it more.”
That is why the ESOP© advisory council included a lot of
resources in the Playbook to help teams educate executives
and get the project champion on board. Executives receive
talking points to assist in the implementation of the project.
The talking points help EVS personnel and IPs articulate their
processes, goals, desired outcomes, and the importance of
staying on target with the project.
The Playbook program necessitates each hospital to
identify an executive champion and complete a survey guided
self-assessment. The self-assessment is used to develop
improvement plans.
With the first two participating hospitals in the San
Francisco Bay area, Barnes says, “That, in addition to what
they might identify as opportunity areas, we (the ESOP©
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