Part one
Mary Govoni, MBA, RDH, CDA
Historically, dentistry in the US has not been associated with high numbers of health-care-acquired infections (HIAs)—that’s the good news.1 The not-so-good news is that recently there have been a number of well-publicized breaches of infection prevention protocols. Some of those breaches led to HIAs, several involving serious consequences and even the death of a patient in the US as a result of an infection acquired during dental treatment.2 (See table 1 for examples of locations and types of breaches.)
These incidents have been investigated by local and state health departments, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and evidence has revealed that the breaches involved not following standard of care, or recognized safety standards as established by the CDC.3,4 In light of these recent occurrences, and in the interest of increasing safety, there is a new emphasis in dentistry on the oversight of infection prevention and control and general safety in dental settings.
Table 1: Health–care-acquired infection breaches in the United States involving serious consequences
Although the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires employers to appoint a safety officer or coordinator to oversee the required safety programs that fall under its OSHA General Workplace Safety Standard,5 specifically the Hazard Communication Standard and the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard, many practices do not officially name a safety officer in their written safety plans. The CDC recommends the appointment of an infection control coordinator (ICC)4 to oversee all areas of infection control and prevention to ensure patient and employee safety, while OSHA’s requirement is to promote employee safety. The same team member can serve as the OSHA safety officer and the infection control coordinator, the tasks can be assigned to several team members, or a safety committee can be formed within the practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment