Following the basics of infection prevention risk and the following mitigation strategies will decrease risk of illness for everyone in our facilities.
Visitors accompanying a patient should adhere to respiratory etiquette, which means:
- Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.
- Use the nearest waste receptacle to dispose of the tissue after use.
- Perform hand hygiene (e.g., hand washing with non-antimicrobial soap and water, alcohol-based hand rub, or antiseptic handwash) after having contact with respiratory secretions and contaminated objects/materials.
All caregivers (and visitors) should stay home if sick.
- Caregivers should contact Employee Health for questions about Return to Work Criteria.
- Visitors should follow department-specific guidelines.
All caregivers should perform appropriate hand hygiene, which means:
- Follow the 5 moments of hand hygiene
- Before touching a patient.
- Before a procedure.
- After a procedure or body fluid exposure risk.
- After touching a patient.
- After touching a patient's surroundings.
- Use soap and water or alcohol-based hand rub
- Intermountain Hand Hygiene Policy
Clinical caregivers should wear PPE in accordance with standard precautions, which means:
- Wearing appropriate PPE up to the anticipated amount, to protect yourself against any blood and body fluids (BBFs) or other potential infectious material (OPIM). Examples include:
- Gloves when in situations of potential contact with BBFs.
- Mask and eye protection during procedures that are likely to generate splashes or sprays of BBFs.
- Intermountain Standard Precaution Policy
Clinical caregivers should adhere to transmission based precautions, which means:
- Wearing PPE and following infection prevention policies in addition to standard precautions for patients who may be infected or colonized with certain infectious agents for which additional precautions are needed to prevent infection transmission.
- Intermountain Isolation policy
If you have any questions, please speak with your leader or contact Heather.Bowers@imail.org or Alexandria.Crandell@imail.org.
Contributors
Heather Bowers, RN, MPH
Infection Prevention and Control Lead
Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital
Alexandria Crandell, RN
Infection Prevention and Control Professional
Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital
Abram Jones
Marketing and Communications Manager
Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital