by Shane Henson — October 5, 2011—The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) and the Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE) are partnering to strengthen the relationship between infection prevention (IP) and environmental services (EVS) to improve patient outcomes and reduce infections.
The organizations’ joint campaign, “Clean Spaces, Healthy Patients: Leaders in Infection Prevention and Environmental Services Working Together for Better Patient Outcomes,” can serve to educate facilities managers and personnel working in healthcare facilities on how to better prevent the spread of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).
To determine the focus of the educational campaign, 2,000 members of APIC and AHE were surveyed to determine how they work together to protect patients.
The survey found that infection prevention and environmental services professionals believe there is a need for additional education and resources to facilitate successful prevention of HAIs: half said they find it difficult to locate useful resources about proper cleaning and disinfection (51%). While 73 percent say their facility educates EVS front line staff well about their role in infection prevention; 54% believe other staff could be better educated about their role in cleaning.
About six in 10 respondents believe educational resources on cleaning, disinfection, and infection prevention and control should be directed to executives and also to physicians. Half believe patients and families of patients should be a target audience, while one-third state the general public should be an audience. Nearly nine in 10 respondents believe EVS team members are treated with respect (85%). Almost nine in 10 are interested in hearing how other facilities have created successful IP-EVS partnerships (88%).
