Ms. Maureen Canning1, Ms. Kim Nash1, Ms. Anie Edwards1, Ms. Monique Sammut1, Ms. Kabita Dhamala1, Ms. Susan Micallef1
1Western Health, Sunshine, Australia
Biography:
Kim Nash has a Masters of Infection Prevention and Control and has worked as an Infection Preventionist in 2 Melbourne organisations for 10 years. Kim also has post graduate qualifications in ICU, is a HIV and Hepatitis blood borne virus counsellor and Nurse Immuniser. Kim's current role is as Sunshine Hospital's Infection Prevention Team Leader who took on the mental health transition action plan and developed a collaborative relationship with the mental health staff in both the acute care and community care settings.
Abstract:
Background
Following recommendations from Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health Services, a transition of existing and new Mental Health services was undertaken with a large metropolitan public health service to meet the needs of the growing client population. Key challenges in such services is to provide an environment to prevent healthcare associated infections in a marginalised cohort, ensuring a physical and psychologically safe environment.
Actions
Infection Prevention (IP) engagement was sought for the transition process, overseeing employee immunisations and needlestick management in high-risk cohort, undertaking environmental audits and improving service delivery outcomes to reduce infectious risks. A gap analysis was undertaken to identify risks to align with Western Health’s to optimise client outcomes.
Results
Multiple IP issues were identified requiring review of procedures and processes, workarounds with development of local risk mitigation strategies given the challenges of transitioning multi-services into one, development of a local IP Link group, audit schedules to tailor activities to the needs of clients and staff in this setting and drive ongoing improvement. The integration of Mental Health into the healthcare service allowed 1153 more clients access such services. The service was successful in accreditation in 2023.
Conclusion
IP provides dedicated staff to both the community & acute care settings. Whilst challenging for IP to navigate using both electronic & manual record management, the different physical settings between providing community & acute level services, it has been rewarding to watch the service develop and embrace a culture of driving improvement in infection prevention for better outcomes.