Training
Driving improvement in environmental hygiene
Investment in infection prevention training and development for all staff groups is vital to drive improvement in environmental hygiene, says Yvonne Spencer. However, training is just one strand of a holistic IPC strategy – creating the right cleaning culture in the healthcare setting is just as important.
Infection prevention solutions help to prevent the spread of infections in hospitals, surgical sites, nursing homes and healthcare settings. These outbreaks can pose a serious threat to the health and safety of your patients and staff. Approximately 834,000 patients will acquire a preventable infection in an NHS Hospital in England. This leads to around 28,500 deaths annually, while 21% of all bed days per year are occupied by patients with healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs). Ensuring strict procedures for equipment
cleaning, carrying out specialist disinfection with the right chemicals and deploying technology in the right places is key to control outbreaks. Cleaning teams, in partnership with clinical colleagues, are the cornerstone of infection prevention practices, breaking the chain of infection through cleaning practices underpinned by training pathways that enhance their knowledge and provide opportunities for further reading. Infection prevention and control has been a high priority in England for the last 20 years. During this time, since mandatory surveillance was introduced, there has been a reduction
in Meticillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections and cases of Clostridioides difficile (C.diff ) infection. It is important not to become complacent,
however. Other HCAIs are growing in incidence. New infections, including the growing number of more resistant strains of bacteria, are in danger of spreading.
In hospital, infections can be acquired from person-to-person contact or from contaminated equipment, devices, and environments. In a healthcare setting, air, water, medical devices, and dry surfaces are all potential sources of contamination and infection.
A hospital cleaning team play a vital role in managing HCAI risks On-site cleaning teams provide a highly responsive, end-to-end service from routine daily cleaning to periodic tasks and ad-hoc or on-demand reactive services, dealing with spillages or carrying out infection cleans. This can also include planned deep-cleaning, commissioning cleans and decontamination cleans utilising various technologies which will help prevent hospital infections.
Creating safe care environments that support
core clinical activity helps Trusts to achieve their patient safety targets by: l Driving improvements in care through a one team, partnership-based approach.
l Creating a culture of infection prevention and control.
l Maintaining service level standards. l Using innovative tools and technology to clean and decontaminate more effectively.
l Extensive experience cleaning a range of healthcare environments including laboratories, mortuary and post-mortem rooms, pharmacy, and theatre cleaning.
l Ensuring compliance with all relevant National Cleaning Standards, CQC, NSC and PLACE cleaning requirements and Trust service specifications and technical guidance.
A best practice approach It is important that all cleaning team members undertake regular, comprehensive training to embed the correct processes and behaviours around IPC. Following a robust operating framework and using the latest clinically proven infection prevention and control techniques should be the norm for cleaning teams in the healthcare environment. Investing in teams through training equips them with an enhanced knowledge of infection prevention principles and will drive improvements in environmental hygiene through enhanced engagement. Protecta is Sodexo’s evidence-based infection prevention approach for hospitals which brings together highly trained frontline teams and a best in class range of cleaning solutions relevant to infection risk, with a focus on outcomes. Accredited by the Infection Prevention Society, the Protecta Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) development pathway focuses on delivering the best possible healthcare outcomes. The programme’s structure supports frontline teams up to management level in delivering the optimum, evidence-based
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