On Display
Helping your customers feature infection control in their office.
Nancy Andrews, RDH
INFECTION CONTROL EDITOR’S NOTE:
Infection Control is a part of every dental job and procedure. It’s always important, but no one wants to focus on it: I.C. is best when it just happens while everyone’s attention is on the immediate tasks of patient treatment. This column is designed to cut to the core of each topic, to empower reps and the industry to give dental customers what they need for successful infection control.
Winter colds and flu are spread by contact, droplets and aerosols. MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is spread by contact. Everyone is concerned about these threats, and reps can provide a simple but truly
valuable service by helping offices make routine infection control a visible and powerful program to protect their patients and themselves from sickness. Now is the time to make sure accounts have all the key products,
located in the right spots to stop colds, flu and other serious
infections like MRSA. Help your customers get results and recognition for infection control by openly featuring their cold, flu and MRSA-prevention program to their patients.
What should the program include?
Most offices have all or most of the following products for this to work:
- Hand hygiene: soap and paper towels, and alcohol sanitizers
- Coughs and sneezes: facial tissues and waste baskets
- CDC posters: Respiratory hygiene/Cough etiquette.
Rep-consultants can quickly plug in the missing products to complete the program, and help the office
understand how products work together to fight seasonal
infections. Of course, all other infection control items and practices remain important - this discussion is within the context of a complete asepsis program.
This is the season of absences, missed appointments, misery, and the resulting loss of profit. If an office buys in to an open program of infection control that includes patients, they are much more likely to adhere to the practices themselves, and patients are less likely to spread infections.
Hand sanitizers
Using hand sanitizers may be the most important infection control change in recent years, since hand contamination and contact is known to be the single most important factor in spreading infectious diseases. The CDC recommends using alcohol sanitizers along with handwashing, alternating throughout the day. Handwashing is the best way to lift and remove physical matter from hands. However, many studies have shown that clinicians often take shortcuts and fail to effectively clean their hands. Hand sanitizers offer a quick and easy alternative that most customers love, but there are some limitations: alcohol sanitizers kill organisms, but do not clean, or remove material from hands like handwashing does. Hand sanitizers should be used to kill unseen germs on otherwise clean hands, and may be used between patients when gloves are changed, as long as hands are clean - but any contamination, including glove powder, requires washing with soap and water.
Antimicrobial products
Antimicrobial soaps continue to kill microorganisms after use. This retards re-growth of germs under gloves, but the active agents may be irritating to skin when used frequently. The CDC suggests using plain gentle soaps for routine handwashing when customers alternate with alcohol rubs, relying on the alcohol to provide a very profound antimicrobial effect, while the purpose of the soap is simply to clean hands. Some alcohol sanitizers contain additional antimicrobial ingredients that continue to work after the alcohol dries. These products are recommended for surgical hand preparation.
Skin protection and healing
Remember that intact skin is everyone’s best protection against infection, especially MRSA, which enters through skin openings. To preserve skin integrity and avoid chapping and cracking, soaps and alcohol sanitizers should have effective emollients that are compatible with latex. Non-healthcare soaps or alcohol sanitizers may irritate hands and break down latex gloves if they lack the right amount, and type, of emollients. All emollients in hand hygiene products, including lotions, should be non-petroleum. EPA approved healthcare products are the best option for successful hand hygiene and skin protection.
Setting up the "Hand hygiene/cough etiquette" stations
- Place alcohol sanitizer dispensers throughout the office; in hallways, operatories, offices, employee areas, and especially at the front desk where patients can see and use the hand rub. Counter-top or wall-mounted dispensers can deliver metered doses that help dispense enough product to keep the hands wet for 15 seconds: the time needed to effectively sanitize hands. Consider children when placing dispensers, since alcohol rubs can be painful in eyes and harmful if swallowed. Sensor activated devices should be located to prevent unintended activation, and always avoid sources of sparks, heat or flames, since alcohol is flammable.
- Place tissues and wastebaskets with the hand sanitizers. Individual tissue packets for each patient with the office name and number are great marketing tools!
- Place CDC Respiratory Hygiene/Cough etiquette posters with the supplies.
Nancy Andrews is a nationally recognized speaker, educational consultant, and author; focusing on disease risks, infection prevention, and ergonomics. She is on the California Dental Association, American Dental Association and Organization of Safety and Asepsis Procedures (OSAP) speakers’ bureaus. Contact her at http://nancyandrewsrdh.net
Sidebar:
Four Easy Points
- Hands transmit MRSA, colds, flu and many winter infections.
- Handwashing is vital, but alcohol sanitizers are faster and easier, and patients can participate.
- Coughs and sneezes should be covered. Posting notices to "cover your cough and sanitize hands", and placing supplies throughout the office encourages compliance and communicates to patients that the office is committed to their protection. This is great marketing, but if offices don’t want to include patients, suggest this for the staff.
- Reps who provide this leadership will make a difference and build relationships.
Sidebar 2:
Resources
The CDC colored poster is
available to download free from:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/pdf/Infdis/
RespiratoryPoster.pdf
Respiratory Hygiene / Cough Etiquette
is outlined at the following site:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/
infectioncontrol/resphygiene.htm
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