Fostering Collaboration Between Infection Prevention and Environmental Services

Making the imperatives behind environmental cleaning clear to all personnel, be it clinical or environmental services staff, is a must, according to Roye-Horn. She incorporates a very popular image into her PowerPoint presentations; the photo of a typical patient room is peppered with neon green Xs that denote the numerous high-touch surfaces that require decontamination. Seeing is believing, Roye-Horn says, but seeing in this eye-opening manner also aids in improved compliance.

“I think it’s a matter of people engaging their imagination (about the hidden hot spots of contamination),” she explains. “That was the theme of my annual presentation this year; we have to enable HCWs to begin to imagine where the bugs are hiding.” Roye-Horn says she used the John Lennon song ‘Imagine’ in her presentation to make her point. “I also use cartoon of bugs hiding on keyboards and in between fingers; it’s powerful to connect visual images with aural cues to stress the fact that we have to believe in the presence of microbes.” Roye-Horn says she has tried several ATP products with bioluminescent properties to evaluate a cleaning tool, but the product didn’t work well with the type of surfaces found at Hunterdon. “There are other, more expensive products we haven’t tried yet. I do think there is value in using a product like GloGerm, where people can see the ‘bugs’ still on their hands right after they clean them. I think that has a big impact on hygiene practices.”

Regardless of the tools used or the education strategies employed, at the heart of solid collaboration between departments, Roye-Horn says, is swapping personnel — having an ES director sit on an infection control committee and having an ICP join an ES committee. At Hunterdon, Roye-Horn says an ES director is also part of her department’s MRSA prevention team. She pushes for improved communication and good relationships between ES professionals and clinical staff, with an emphasis on a “tell me, don’t tell on me” approach. Her facility also established an infection control hotline, through which all staff could report breaches in protocol and practice by repeat offenders if a gentle reminder doesn’t work.