When Your Patients Are at Risk, You’re at Risk:
Infection Control During Construction and Renovation

How will you protect your patients from increased risk of infection during construction and renovation--and protect yourself from potential lawsuits at the same time?

The answer begins as soon as you and your ICRA panel choose a construction company and the necessary JCAHO, CDC and AIA pre-project planning.

How will you manage the disruptions to air quality, noise, containing and removing debris, new emergency procedures, new locations for sharps boxes and sanitizing stations, the constant monitoring of quality controls--things that are essential to maintaining sanitation and quality of care?

And you will most likely find yourself continuously evaluating the answer as work continues and unexpected disruptions arise. Like an acute care hospital that found it would be easier and more cost-effective to build a new operating suite than to renovate the old, after evaluating what they would have to do for infection control.

Or another project that, while underway, had to reroute a steam pipe, rather than cause major disruptions and go through an occupied patient floor, disturbing patients and staff. The additional cost of the added pipe was determined to be the better, more cost-effective choice rather than having to implement expensive, time-consuming infection controls that would distress the patients and expose them to infection risks.

Infection rates have been known to skyrocket just from airborne pathogens during construction, renovation and maintenance. Take the fungus Aspergillus spp., which actually attaches to and feeds on dirt and dust particles and cellulose-based building materials--and can cause potentially fatal pulmonary infections in immunocompromized patients.

The safety issues become even more evident when you consider that nearly 75% of all construction projects in healthcare involve an expansion or renovation to an existing healthcare structure. That means more patients to protect from increased infection risks.

And infection control is expensive! You really can’t afford to mess it up. Fortunately, you can minimize the impact of the cost with proper planning and education in the early stages of a project--so that you can avoid more expensive changes and potential project delays later.

Finally, a no-nonsense approach to protecting your patients--and your organization. This specific accredited infection control training for healthcare facilities addresses the concerns that will most directly affect your time, your budget, and your patient care. Things like: top considerations in choosing the right contractor, accountability of contractors if a breach occurs, and how to evaluate your priorities when you have to make mid-project, split-minute decisions when the unexpected happens.

You’ll even find out about infection control from both the facility and the construction sides, giving you priceless information for negotiating and communicating effectively during any project.

Get the answers to questions you didn’t even know you needed to ask in this complete and accredited infection control training. Sign up today, and get inside information from experts in healthcare and construction, so that you have infection control that works, is sustainable, doesn’t waste your time and money--and most of all, protects your patients.

Learning Objectives:

• What are the first steps to protecting patients, staff and others who visit or work in your facility?
• How do the latest requirements of JCAHO, AIA, and CDC relate directly to the upgrades you want to make?
• What are the most important priorities in designing an infection control program--and how might they change throughout the construction process?
• Real-life lessons from both sides of the project: the facility and the contractor
• What are the best practices that will give you sustainable infection control--and the most bang for your buck?
• Top ways for facilities, ICRA panels and contractors to communicate about infection concerns and the reality of patient care.
• The most over-looked information you need to know about infectious containment and environmental monitoring.

Presented By:

Leo T. Old, PE, CIH
Construction Risk Management

Richard D. Bennett, MSPH, CIH
Principal, Risk Tech, LLC

Guy Ott, CFM
Guy Ott Consulting, LLC
Former VP, Facilities & Operations, Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center

Jim Moler, PE
National Manager, Engineering Systems
Turner Construction--Healthcare Group

Who would benefit from this program:

• Facility Managers
• Facility Directors
• Architects
• Designers

Product Options:

• Audio Conference CD Only: $229.00 (includes S&H)

Length: 1 hour 30 minutes