Surgical Services can be an intimidating area for Infection Prevention team members who don’t have experience working in the PeriOperative environment.  How can a background in Public Health and Epidemiology make you a resource to your sterile processing department?  We find out today, as Garrett Hollembeak shares his experiences as a Manager of Sterile Processing with a unique background in Public Health and how he has taken an epidemiological approach to leading the department.  Justin Poulin and Dr. Larry Muscarella speak with Garrett about the importance of needs assessments, root cause analysis, and identifying leading and lagging factors to establish key performance indicators and continuous improvement processes. 

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#Epidemiology #SurgicalServices #SterileProcessing #TransmissionControl #Podcast #Education #IPT #InfectionPrevention #InfectionControl #Infection #ICP #PublicHealth #Healthcare

Do you dread visits from surveyors and auditors?  Let’s be honest, most of us do.  However, regulatory agencies perform a necessary purpose and so do your regulatory and accreditation partners within your healthcare facility.  Infection Prevention collaboration and participation in mock surveys can be critical to making improvements proactively.  Amy Asleson joins Justin Poulin and Dr. Larry Muscarella to share a positive perspective on regulatory compliance, her experience with infection prevention, and details trends that surround #sterileprocessing relative to regulatory agencies.  If you loved our most recent conversation with Jill Berends, then you won’t want to miss this one!

#Accreditation #Regulatory #CMS #DNV-GL #JointCommission #TransmissionControl #Podcast #Education #IPT #InfectionPrevention #InfectionControl #Infection #ICP #PublicHealth #Healthcare

How can we make the MAUDE database more usable?  Can we create incentives to ensure that the data housed in the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting database can be used to evaluate trending and identify otherwise undetected risks with medical devices?  Justin Poulin and Dr. Larry Muscarella speak with Ryan Bass gain his insight into the current problems, gaps and potential solutions for optimizing the database and making a substantial improvement in Public Health.  This is an excellent follow up to our inaugural episode and you do not want to miss it!

#MAUDE #MDR #MedicalDevice #TransmissionControl #Podcast #Education #IPT #InfectionPrevention #InfectionControl #Infection #ICP #PublicHealth #Healthcare

If you work in healthcare, then you are a patient advocate.  You have the experience and expertise to influence change, but so often we may not be confident in speaking up.  Today’s episode is a great example of bravery and what it means to do the right thing.  Jill Berends joins Justin Poulin and Dr. Larry Muscarella to share her personal advocate scenario, partnering with Infection Prevention and how social media had a great deal of influence on the situation.  Tune in this week for a fascinating story!

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#PatientAdvocacy #ContaminationRisk #MedicalDevice #TransmissionControl #Podcast #Education #IPT #InfectionPrevention #InfectionControl #Infection #ICP #PublicHealth #Healthcare

Infection prevention has become an increasingly significant financial concern for hospitals since the accountable care act went into effect.  Chronic wound care is costly.  What are the primary causes, risk factors and microorganisms that may be involved with chronic wounds?  How do chronic illnesses such as diabetes impact the healing process?  Joe Stoffel joins Justin Poulin and Dr. Larry Muscarella to provide a broad but detailed overview of wound care in healthcare.  Do not miss this episode!

#woundcare #biofilm #chronicwounds #TransmissionControl #Podcast #Education #IPT #InfectionPrevention #InfectionControl #Infection #ICP #PublicHealth #Healthcare

Did you know that you can be involved in the creation of new industry standards for healthcare?  Pamela Arora, the new President and CEO of AAMI (Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation) joins Justin Poulin and Dr. Larry Muscarella following her first week at AAMI, which happened to be a very busy one.  Pamela discusses a recent meeting with the standards development volunteers, next steps for the committee behind ST91, and the sterilization-focused track of sessions at the upcoming AAMI Exchange in June. 

Above all else, there is a call to action to get involved in the development of these standards for frontline healthcare workers across the country!

#AAMI #Standards #Guidelines #sterilization #ST91 #PB70 #TransmissionControl #Podcast #Education #IPT #InfectionPrevention #InfectionControl #Infection #ICP #PublicHealth #Healthcare

The second phase of the pandemic has hit healthcare hard; staffing shortages.  How have you been able to deal with the sustained burden and chronic fatigue that can trap us in the constant cortisol response?  Dr. Hudson Garret has a great deal of expertise, but especially as a resiliency practitioner and joins Justin Poulin and Dr. Larry Muscarella on this episode of Transmission Control to offer up some tips for how to bounce back quickly. 

Tune in today as we learn ways that healthcare organizations are using resiliency practitioners to help teams to be more effective and assist frontline healthcare workers to be happier, more productive and feel supported by senior leadership through tough times.

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#resilience #resiliency #infectiousdisease #chronicfatigue #TransmissionControl #Podcast #Education #IPT #InfectionPrevention #InfectionControl #Infection #ICP #PublicHealth #Healthcare

How much do you know about the chemicals that are used to reprocess reusable endoscopes?  With the advancing design complexity of these devices, effective cleaning solutions are critical to patient safety.  Kris Murphy has spent his career in research/development and joins Justin Poulin and Dr. Larry Muscarella to provide an overview of the chemistries used to clean and disinfect flexible endoscopes, share his thoughts on current industry trends, and tackles the debate regarding the use of simethicone in GI procedures.

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#simethicone #cleaning #disinfection #medicaldevice #superbug #chemistry #chemicals #reprocessing #flexibleendosopes #GI #endoscopy #scopes #endoscope #TransmissionControl #Podcast #Education #IPT #InfectionPrevention #InfectionControl #Infection #ICP #PublicHealth #Healthcare

Minimally invasive surgery was introduced to reduce the rate of infection, but the technology has come a long way. In recent years, single use devices have emerged as an alternative to reprocessing medical devices with a focus most recently in the world of endoscopy. Dr. Stephen Snyder has been performing procedures since the beginning and joins Justin Poulin and Dr. Larry Muscarella to provide his perspective on the history of arthroscopy, recent developments and what the future may have in store. We hope you can join us!

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#Arthroscopy #singleuse #disposable #arthroscope #endoscopy #scopes #endoscope #TransmissionControl #Podcast #Education #IPT #InfectionPrevention #InfectionControl #Infection #ICP #PublicHealth #Healthcare

Infection prevention audits are critical to continuous improvement, but may not always be welcomed by department staff.  What can be done to improve receptiveness and encourage collaboration when sharing the results of the audits?  If you don’t have auditing tools in place, where do you even start?  What resources are available to you?  Misty Dillon speaks with Dr. Larry Muscarella and Justin Poulin to lay out best practices for implementing audits and key components that can ensure success!

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#Audits #TransmissionControl #Podcast #Education #IPT #InfectionPrevention #InfectionControl #Infection #ICP #PublicHealth #Healthcare