Kim Delahanty, RN, BSN, PHN, MBA/HCM, CIC
INFECTION PREVENTION
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O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4
To Prevent Infection, First Assess the Risk
To prevail, you need to know your enemies and know yourself.
T
he first key
to effective
infection
prevention strate-
gies is knowing
how to choose
your battles. In
any surgical facili-
ty, there are
countless threats
to consider —
both within and
beyond your control. Sure, you'd like to be able to address them all,
but since resources are always finite, you want to focus on the most
serious threats — those that are more likely and more profound in
their potential consequences.
That's what developing a risk assessment is all about: determining
how best to focus your attention and resources. Of course, if you're
accredited or accepting reimbursements from CMS, risk assessments
are required. But I find that a lot of people are confused about how to
conduct them. When I teach classes on developing risk-assessment
strategies, I always ask how many attendees have been in their cur-
rent roles for less than 2 years. Usually almost every hand goes up.
Since situations that loom as serious threats to one facility may be
non-threats to another, you need to be able to analyze and prioritize.
One approach is to score each risk that exists based on 3 criteria.
Consider, for example, 2 potential types of risks and the impact they
could have: poor hand hygiene compliance and sharps injuries.
Sharps Injuries
Probability
2 (very likely)
Degree of potential harm
2 (permanent harm)
Level of preparedness
1 (well prepared)
TOTAL 5