What is LHSC doing?

London Health Sciences Centre has had city-wide infection monitoring programs, with quarterly reports to staff and leadership in place for several years.

A number of initiatives are underway to help control hospital-acquired infections. We have auditing tools for our cleaning practices to help identify areas for improvement, and have recently installed washing machines at LHSC specifically designed to clean bed curtains that may contain bacteria.

We also use audit tools to provide us with data on compliance rates for things such as hand hygiene and we continually monitor our rates of VRE. Carefully monitoring the data aids us in making quality improvements in our organization.

All direct care staff are given infection control education on hire and all new and current direct care givers complete the new Ministry of Health and Long Term Care core teaching on infection control practices.

SPECIAL PRECAUTIONS TAKEN WITH CASES OF VRE AT LHSC:

• Patient isolation strategies are used during cases of VRE. Depending on where and why patients are in hospital, they may be put in a single room. Long-sleeved gowns and gloves must be worn by everyone who cares for the patients.
• should an outbreak ever occur, we have dedicated outbreak management teams and strategies ready
• in areas with VRE cases, Infection Control practitioners visit daily to monitor the situation
• Signs are placed on patient room doors to remind others about the special precautions that need to be taken.
• Patients may be asked to stay in their room.
• The room and the equipment used in the room will be cleaned and disinfected regularly
• Everyone must wash their hands well upon entering and leaving the room