Description

Effective protocols for infection prevention and control (IPC) sit at the heart of safe patient care. This lecture explores common areas of challenge in IPC through the lens of "what common things go wrong?", applying the principles of failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) to identify how to prevent such incidents. The issues are divided up into the overall topics of infrastructure, equipment, protocols, and people. This provides a framework for looking at quality of IPC and risks of IPC errors that is easy to implement regardless of the scale of the clinical facility. It will help practices identify and prioritize areas for actions, to prevent the wrong staff members doing the wrong thing with the wrong equipment in the wrong place at the wrong time. The following topics will be explored:

* The concept that effective reprocessing begins in the operatory

* Common errors with using ultrasonic cleaning and washer disinfectors

* How segregation in instrument reprocessing is linked to workflow

* Why steri room design involves more than using floor plan diagrams

* Approaches to checking sterilised loads in a structured way.

Learning Objectives

Prof. Laurence Walsh

Laurence Walsh is Professor of Dental Science and Head of the School of Dentistry at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. A registered specialist in the field of special needs dentistry, Laurence has played a major role in the ...