Elevating Sterile Processing Businesses Through Tailored Consulting Excellence
a trained observer to read the checklist to tell them how to put the PPE on, will boost overall preparedness. You’ ve already done a lot of mitigation to create a safer process that can be implemented. Their anxiety will come down if they have a checklist to follow and know what to do next.”
Prather continued,“ So, you have identified that patient, you have isolated that patient, who are you going to call? It’ s not Ghostbusters, it’ s your internal and external communications team members, because you want to ensure the right leaders are informed early. Early recognition and early calls to loop people in sooner rather than later is going to be very helpful. If your system involves a phone tree, you want to make sure that charge nurse or whoever’ s doing that first phone call has a very clear phone number and person that they’ re going to call, and from there, subsequent people are clear on who’ s calling who next. Having a plan in your facility for communication is key, so that you can include your charge nurse, infection prevention, infectious disease, supply chain to make sure you have enough PPE and the right PPE, and maybe administration and facilities or environmental services as
So, you have identified that patient, you have isolated that patient, who are you going to call? It’ s not Ghostbusters, it’ s your internal and external communications team members, because you want to ensure the right leaders are informed early. Early recognition and early calls to loop people in sooner rather than later is going to be very helpful.”
well. For external communications, I highly encourage you to make friends with your local public health agency because they are going to be your friend throughout this situation. This is something that we recommend earlier rather than later, so that you’ re making that internal phone call, maybe to an administrator, and then you’ re making that phone call to local public health.
Public health is going to help you rule in or rule out that patient and a potential HCID. The sooner this is done, the sooner you can go about your regular business. You can’ t just test for these pathogens, you have to have public health approval.”
HCID invokes Category A waste management. As Prather explained,“ You must hold onto that waste until you know the results of that suspect patient. You don’ t want to deal with or treat waste as category A until you know for sure that’ s really what it is.”
Actionable items for proper handling include knowing how to package potentially infectious waste and having the appropriate supplies on hand. It also involves identifying a holding area in which to sequester waste until lab results are known. It is advised facilities engage with their vendor to establish a transport plan and being able to accommodate any special requirements.
An important component is lab specimen collection and testing.“ The key thing we like to hit home here is knowing what clinical tests you can perform in your facility safely,” Prather said.“ Do you have a point-of-care platform or a portable platform instrument that can go closer to where that patient is?
Guiding Excellence, Redefining Operations
Elevating Sterile Processing Businesses Through Tailored Consulting Excellence
At Ketchum Konsulting, LLC, we specialize in providing tailored consulting services exclusively for sterile processing.
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