INFECTION PREVENTION ECRI Institute’s certified infection preventionists conduct on-site consultations, while ECRI staff of medical device engineers, epidemiologists, architects, accident and forensics specialists, and clinicians review findings and provide additional recommendations. “For example, if we are onsite for an outbreak and the consultant suspects that the potential reservoir is medicaldevice related, we immediately call in the expertise of the clinical engineering staff in our Health Devices group,” said Davis. “That instant expertise advises us, in real time, about the nature of the device and potential mechanisms that would put the device at risk for being a causative factor. If we need an engineer or a medical forensics expert onsite (or any other expert), we fly them out to get the job done right the first time.” Davis said the ECRI Infection Preventionists look at a variety of inputs to develop the gap analysis and action plans from (but not limited to): 1. Systems (physical and electronic) 2. Devices (medical and standard) 3. Mechanicals/plant engineering 4. Staffing 5. Workflow 6. Infection prevention program effectiveness
7. Data validation 8. Surveillance techniques (manual and electronic) 9. Epidemiologic data and analysis 10. Human factors/ergonomics 11. Cleaning and disinfection 12. Sterilization/high level disinfection 13. Environmental factors/industrial hygiene 14. Infection control risk assessment for construction (consultation, planning, program evaluation, onsite and online training) 15. Policy and procedure review 16. Implementation science 17. Infection forensics “ECRI is basically a one-stop shop for infection prevention and control consultation and resources.”
ECRI has been updating its Coronavirus Outbreak Preparedness Center on a regular basis. The resources include very specific information on emergency preparedness supplies.
Outbreak Response Preparedness is key for hospitals and health systems when responding to an infectious disease outbreak. The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is not the first, nor
will it be the last, infectious disease outbreak to make global headlines. “There have been a number of outbreaks that have taught us that routine healthcare infection prevention is not enough when dealing with a novel infectious disease or an infection that has potential for causing a lot of morbidity and mortality,” said Jennifer Anne Hanrahan, DO, an infection disease specialist from the University of Toledo. SARS, MERS-CoV, and Ebola have been transmitted in healthcare facilities, and preventing the spread of infection in hospitals is critical to containing these infections worldwide. 32
June 2020
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