INFECTION PREVENTION
BY GRAHAM GARRISON
COVID Fatigue and the Infection Preventionist The need for infection preventionists has never been greater. What can hospitals and healthcare systems do to appropriately staff those positions? Linda Dickey, RN, MPH, CIC, FAPIC, Dickey Consulting LLC, has been an infection preventionist for more than 25 years. In that time, “we’ve never been in a situation where we have either reused or extended the use of personal protective equipment, certainly on the scale that we’ve had to do with COVID,” she said. Dickey is presidentelect of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Prevention (APIC).
abundantly clear that we are joined at the hip to try to solve these problems because they are quite vexing. COVID has been extremely challenging to our supply chain partners. It put them front and center in terms of trying to manage the availability of various types of products, hand in hand with maintaining safety.” The beginning of the pandemic was extremely difficult for infection preventionists, Dickey said, because the guidance coming out was so fast, and so evolving. “Not only were people involved in epidemiology and infection prevention trying to calm fears and maintain patient care and answer questions, but we were doing it in the context of not necessar-
Linda Dickey
Robin Carver
ily having all the information that we would have known had the pandemic been further down the road. So, I think
In the past, that reuse or extended use
just-in-time inventory. COVID taught
everyone in the whole world literally was
was simply not done as a fundamental
us all that we can’t always expect to have
working somewhat in a vacuum, learning
tenant of infection prevention. Single-use
something readily available.”
about COVID-19, its transmission, what
items were used once and thrown away.
Because there were so many inter-
Yet reuse and extended use was a situa-
ruptions in the supply chain, infection
care, and what the options were for actual
tion that nearly every healthcare provider
preventionists had to be nimble and
treatment for these patients.”
found themselves in amid the early days
work closely with supply chain partners.
of the pandemic.
“We probably worked more closely with
worked around the clock, either extend-
them than we ever did before,” Dickey
ing workweek hours or fielding calls
the supply chain issues that it made us
said, whether it was examining personal
on the weekend. Dickey said for her,
think differently about how reserves
protective equipment options, cleaning
those extended hours started in late
are handled,” she said. “And it made us
and disinfection options, or even options
January and continued throughout the
think more about the cost of that, because,
related to some types of services. “Not
year. She didn’t have her first day off
obviously, there was warehouse space and
that we didn’t work closely with our sup-
until Mother’s Day. “Our leadership was
holding a lot of supplies to consider, versus
ply chain partners before, but it made it
phenomenal, and our supply chain leader
“We all realized when we ran into
18
the options were for safe and effective
Many infection preventionists
June 2021 | The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
