Mrs Lesley Lewis1
1Rural Infection Control Practice Group (RICPRAC), Wangaratta, Australia,
2Northeast Health Wangaratta, Wangaratta, Australia
Introduction,
The regular assessment of sterilizing services to ensure compliance with AS/NZS 4187 has been an established expectation of health services for many years. Monitoring compliance with this standard is mandated 2.5.1 of AS/NZS 4187; and in criterion 3.16 of the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards 2011. The current version of the standard AS/NZS 4187:2014 Reprocessing of reusable medical devices in health service organizations was released in 2014 as a major Australian reference document guiding reusable medical device (RMD) reprocessing.
Methods
The Rural Infection Control Practice Group (RICPRAC) has designed and implemented an AS/NZS 4187:2014 audit tool. The tool converts technical detail in AS/NZS 4187:2014 into108 criteria in a streamlined, efficient and effective audit process. The tool design evaluates the reprocessing matrix including governance elements and practice/ process elements.
RICPRAC coordinated its first audit using this tool across regional Victoria in 2016. Forty-five health service organizations voluntarily completed internal audits and submitted data to RICPRAC.
Results
The audit found significant trends with multiple health service organizations recording noncompliance for the same criterion.
- 30% of the HSO recorded the same noncompliance with 24% of the audit.
- 50% of the HSO recorded the same noncompliance with 11% of the audit.
RICPRAC has now completed a second audit using this tool.
Conclusions
This presentation will discuss the audit tool development process. Its implementation and audit findings across a multi-centre audit project. These will be compared with trends and changes found in the second audit one year later.
Biography:
Lesley Lewis is a Regional Infection Control Consultant in Victoria and is a member of RICPRAC