[Jennifer Benjamin]

Hi Teresa
I too work for a few endoscopy units and I see the anaethetists do some pretty ordinary stuff. No hand hygiene, no gloves, drawing up a whole list of drugs, taping the cannula in instead of occlusive dressings. I keep feeding the results back in my audits so its known to management. Often in the audits this is main area of non compliance.
We are hoping that because they are sessional that each place they visit ask them for the same things and if they do it once they will get a hole lot of people off their backs… ie do the hand hygiene online competency and we will copy it for you to take everywhere and we will all stop nagging you! Some have!
I did some hh audits recently and plucked the anaethetist out as a separation and presented the results to management along with other observations. They draggged the whole team down. The onus is on management to ensure staff comply so make sure that management know that.
Good luck

Jennifer Benjamin
Infection Control Consulant
Melbourne Pathology
M: 0402000590
Quality is in our DNA
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________________________________

Hi All

I am working at a new, private small endoscopy centre.
I get to see the anaesthetists (which was not always easy when working at a busy hospital) and thought it would be great to have the discussion and look at the possibility of doing education etc. person to person.

Unfortunately, I have hit great resistance! They firmly believe that because our cannulas are in short-term – (being a day only endoscopy centre) this ANTT stuff does not apply to us.
They have asked for the evidence, which I gave them of course, but they keep saying it is not applicable to us. The other day I was talking to one of them about the importance of ANTT and that hand hygiene needs to be performed at the correct
time as per the 5 moments and I was shocked to hear….”so you expect me to perform hand hygiene each time before I administer an IV drug if I have touched the environment, my phone or another patient?”. So I think we still have a long way to go with education, especially of the practitioners who are out there in private practice (perhaps it’s just my doctors?)!!

Even though management were supportive initially, they have now said to just look at training our staff (not the doctors). This has come about since Advisory No: A13/05.
I am struggling with this, and will of course try to come up with some ideas to get around it sensitively.

While on the subject. Is Australia working on our own educational resources (I have worked hard to get rid of Lanyards and now I see them dangling in aseptic fields)?
Is everyone teaching glove use to draw up IV Medications? Is everyone sourcing a larger alcohol/chlorhexidine swab as per the educational videos?
It seems that although we all need to implement this standard, in talking to other practitioners everyone seems to be doing it a little differently, which then defeats the purpose.

Any feedback greatly accepted. Have a great week.

Teresa Lewis
Infection Control and Prevention CNC
Newcastle Endoscopy Centre

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[Jennifer Benjamin]

I previously worked in a GEM ward where these were used.They need to be
wrapped in 12 layers of towel to prevent burning the patient. We placed
them in plastic bags and sealed them with tape and then layered the
toweling. The bags were disposed of after each use. They were not used
for pts with non intact skin or Known communicable diseases.

Jen Benjamin

Infection Control Consultant

Melbourne Pathology

M: 0402 000 590

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—–Original Message—–
Behalf Of Lesley Lewis

Dear all, I am looking for information on hydrocculator infection
control risks. This equipment is a heat pack system using large heat
packs covered with a canvas material cover that cannot be removed. The
packs are heated (and left stored) in a tank filled with water that is
maintained at 70 degrees (no readout or guage to verify). The water is
reccomended to be changed 2nd weekly. The heat packs are intended for
multi patient use and are wet when used with a cloth cover and cloth
towel wrapped around the pack. My questions are:
1. Have hydrocollators been associated with any outbreaks?
2. What are the contamination risks with the tank – is 70 degrees
sufficient to eliminate contamination and microbial growth within the
tank?.
3. Heat packs – how would you suggest they should be decontaminated
between uses?

Lesley Lewis
Hume Region Infection Control resource and Consulting Service
lesley.lewis@hume.org.au

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[Jennifer Benjamin]

Triclosan products are generally well tolerated and still has antimicrobial properties
Jen Benjamin
Infection Control Consultant
Melbourne Pathology
M: 0402 000 590
“We take it personally”
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________________________________

Hello all

I have had a couple of staff who are apparently sensitive to Chlorhexidine products.

Dermatology review is difficult to access in the NT so my question is what do other ICP recommend for hand hygiene in this case. I realise you can’t endorse products but a few clues would be great!

Margaret Gleeson | Clinical Nurse Specialist, Hand Hygiene Compliance
Infection Prevention & Management Unit, Royal Darwin Hospital | Department of Health and Families
Rocklands Drive, Tiwi, NT 0811| PO Box 41326, Casuarina, NT 0811
p… (08) 89227694 Pager # 238 | f… (08) 89228889| e…margaret.gleeson@nt.gov.au | http://www.nt.gov.au/health

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