While it is true you should never waste a crisis or outbreak to get what you need and want for your department, we are aware of the backlash of the pandemic, as it’ s not all positive.”— Dr. Andreas Voss
we need to identify ways of cooperating with them and helping drive change instead of being driven by change and the disruption of IPC and healthcare. So, what I expect is not only a change but a complete and total disruption.”
Voss alluded to the trend of an increasing movement toward home-based care.
“ Right now, IPC is best organized in hospitals,” he said.“ Nursing homes are trying to catch up to hospitals with varying degrees of success. Other healthcare delivery / homecare is a totally different game, and all these trends are becoming extremely important for the future. So, who is coordinating this kind of care in the future? Who will finance IPC in that new sector? Who is in charge of IPC in homecare? We need to be proactive, we must adapt and we have to cooperate. Otherwise, we will find ourselves in a new world where we are just outsiders looking in. It means that our classic IPC team of physicians and nurses needs to change; it’ s not sustainable for the future, when our team will need to look drastically different. We will need data specialists, epidemiology specialists, communication specialists, medical technology experts, behavioral science analysts and others. The skillset of future IPC professionals, whether they have a clinical or non-clinical background, must evolve. And, of course, the biggest challenge of all is the administrator who is counting the pennies. In the last 40 to 50 years, there have always been changes in innovations, and the future will be no different, but it always come down to how to save money.”
Voss advised infection prevention and control professionals to become proactive, as staying reactive will further erode the autonomy of the discipline in the future.“ While it is true you should never waste a crisis or outbreak to get what you need and want for your department, we are aware of the backlash of the pandemic, as it’ s not all positive. Uncontrollable green caregivers and projects are a patient-safety risk; join the movement but find ways for needed de-implementation of IPC measures without harming patients’ safety, and stay in charge, set the limit. AI and innovative technology will be a part of healthcare and IPC, but be sure to be flexible, cooperative and use it wisely without losing critical skills. We must reinstall the importance of IPC and high-quality diagnostics in healthcare politics and administrations yet again. We must find better ways to influence our colleagues to work on an attitude change, which is a continuous endeavor. With the upcoming changes in healthcare, we need to adapt and be proactive to avoid becoming bystanders in our own sector. Well-implemented, basic measures and IPC professionals who can communicate the reasoning for those measures will always be needed to ensure patient and healthcare worker safety. I would add that there is no‘ I’ in the infection control team and it’ s better and more fun when you work with your colleagues. I strongly believe it is the end of IPC as we know it today; the changes are coming, and we need to change with them.”
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