New facility allows PRHC to improve its patient and staff safety practices
Hospital experiences decrease in number of C. diff cases since the move
Friday July 18, 2008 -- Jason Thompson
Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) is taking advantage of its move to a brand new 715,000-sq-foot facility by re-examining and improving its patient and staff safety practices, including increased efforts to manage the number of Clostridium difficile (C. diff) cases.

A month after moving to the new site, PRHC has seen only five new cases of C. diff which, according to a hospital press release, is a positive reduction.

Margaret Jay, PRHC’s co-ordinator of infection prevention and control, says the move has provided the organization with an opportunity to educate staff members in order to acclimatize them to their new surroundings.

“It gives us a refreshed approach to look at what we’re doing for infection prevention and control, how we can do better and how our new facility can help us with that,” says Jay, a member of PRHC’s infection control committee.

The educational sessions also presented an opportunity to re-examine strategies around the management of C. diff. As a result, PRHC has revamped its policies concerning the management of human waste.

“There was no standard practice of how we manage the disposal of human waste and bodily fluids,” Jay says. “We were coming into a new environment and wanted to make sure we weren’t contaminating our environment or putting any of our patients at risk.”

Disposal of human waste and bodily fluids is now centralized to the hospital’s utility rooms. Policies are also in place to ensure the utility rooms are cleaned four times a day using a new sporacidal agent as part of the new cleaning process.

As part of the organization’s increased environmental cleaning policy, twice-daily cleaning of rooms for patients requiring contact precautions is also underway.

Other efforts to effectively manage C. diff include:

— Adhering to the Provincial Infectious Disease Advisory Committee’s best practice document for the management of C. diff

— An outside review of infection prevention and control practices with the help of infection control experts with the University Health Network in Toronto and Kingston General Hospital

— Additional education sessions for staff and physicians in the fall to make full use of the new facility’s infection control enhancements such as hand hygiene sinks in every room

— Infection prevention and control staff have been stationed at staff entrances in recent weeks to encourage hand hygiene compliance

Jay says a multi-faceted approach to C. diff management, with plenty of educational opportunities and support from senior administration, are key enablers to improving infection prevention and control practices at any organization.

Click here for more information on C. diff.

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