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Management of linen from a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 case should be in accordance with standard precautions and routine procedure.
Handle soiled laundry with minimum agitation (do not shake dirty laundry) to avoid contamination of the air, surfaces, and persons.
Linen that is heavily soiled with blood, body substances or other fluids (including water) should be contained in clear leak-proof bags.
Personal clothing that is usually laundered by the family should be placed in a plastic bag for transport.
Clothing, linen, mop heads and soft toys from health service settings should be laundered through a laundry service that is compliant with AS/NZS 4146:2000.
For residential settings, laundry should be washed at the hottest temperature the items can withstand. Use usual detergent and dry items completely.
ref: https://www.health.vic.gov.au/covid-19-infection-prevention-control-guidelines/standard-and-transmission-based-precautionsAttaching hand hygiene (HH) product to equipment is a way to have point of care access to HH e.g. weigh chairs, equipment trolleys.
The hand hygiene product representative is a good resource to support hand hygiene availability .The rep will know what other possibilities there are for increasing access to the HH product you use, such as brackets (usually provided free of charge).
Hand hygiene compliance of HH on entering and leaving a resident’s room is a helpful message.Hi Catherine,
My work was for a public health service (with 3 x 100 bed RACHs) and notification extended across the service via resident erecord, health service erecord (pathology, acute care notes), client administration notes, and hard copy kept in resident notes at the facility.
The onus is on nursing staff to check the alerts, on saying that the IPCC visits regularly and checks resident, staff and visitors understand measures in place.
Generally, standard transmission based precautions are sufficient for most MROs and even CPO with measures in place if the resident has incontinence or diarrhoea for GI MROs. CPOs have additional transmission measures and I have initiated a MRO specific care plan for individuals living with CPE in a care plan specific to each staff group e.g. what this means for the cleaner, nurse etc.
Additional transmission based cleaning is communicated via a daily cleaning list sent to the environmental manager and a discreet IPC sign (4 x 4cm clean hands sign) on the residents door.
As with Carrie, the daily handover form includes any MRO the resident is infected or colonised with.
The documentation in the resident erecord includes a care plan for the specific MRO. This MRO is closed off per the Australasian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare (2019) https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/australian-guidelines-prevention-and-control-infection-healthcare-2019.
The infection prevention services for the organisation usually manage the alerts across the organisation. The IPC leads manage the resident erecord.Kind regards
Penny Radalj
IPCC and AC Lead
Barwon South West PHU
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