Artistic method, diversified an infection prevention and management roles create on-ramp for non-traditional hospital workers

In an period of hospital price range cuts and staffing freezes, a Florida hospital greater than doubled workers positions for an infection prevention and management (IPC) over a four-year interval, lowering infections and creating alternatives for non-clinical workforce members to enter the sector and excel.

By presenting a enterprise case exhibiting prices of extra well being care-associated infections (HAIs), an infection preventionist (IP) Luz Caicedo, MPH, CPH, CIC, CRCST, VA-BC at AdventHealth in Celebration, Florida was in a position to improve IPC workers from 2 to 4.8 full-time equivalents (FTEs) and reduce HAIs and communicable illness exposures between 2019 and 2023, in accordance with an oral summary introduced on the 2024 APIC Annual Convention. She additionally created an IPC profession ladder with diversified roles, outlining profession development and enhancing retention among the many workforce.

The oral summary, “Advancing An infection Prevention: Navigating Staffing Development and Implementing a Profession Ladder (LDPM 16)” is being introduced at 1:41pm CT, June 4, on the APIC Annual Convention in San Antonio, Texas.

When Caicedo joined AdventHealth in 2019, there have been simply two full-time equal IPs on workers and the 217-bed Florida hospital was within the midst of an growth to accommodate 357 beds, along with bringing on extra working rooms, catheterization labs, interventional radiology, endoscopy, and ambulatory websites. Already understaffed and unable to go to working rooms or ambulatory websites various instances a yr, Caicedo knew she wanted to develop IP capability to adequately defend sufferers and workers from HAIs.

To evaluate the assets needed to offer enough protection and construct her enterprise case, she based mostly her splendid IP staffing ratio not simply on the variety of inpatient beds, but in addition on the hospital’s rising variety of procedural areas and outpatient service traces, utilizing the 2012 New York State Acute Care Mattress equal as a mannequin.

Beginning with surgical website infections (SSIs), she was in a position to persuade hospital leaders to let her rent a brand new IP to cowl the surgical service. When SSIs decreased markedly, she obtained approval for extra workers. Because of increasing the dimensions of the IP workforce from 2 in 2019 to 4.8 FTEs in 2023, AdventHealth Celebration achieved a 37% lower in CLABSIs, and a forty five% lower in well being care-onset C. difficile because the hospital elevated its operations.

“Our Chief Nursing Officer could be very supportive of the IPC division as a result of we have been in a position to present her outcomes,” mentioned Caicedo. “Each time that she has invested IPC workers positions, we have been in a position to decrease our an infection charges.”

With approval to develop the division got here the problem of figuring out the kind of positions to carry on. To handle this, Caicedo created an IPC profession ladder and diversified the roles within the division to incorporate an entry-level IP Affiliate and IP Coordinator, in addition to An infection Preventionist, and IP Supervisor. This structured profession development has enhanced retention and has created pathways for non-clinical workforce members to enter the sector.

Extra staffing has allowed the IPC workforce to introduce high quality enchancment initiatives like constructing dashboards to trace machine rounds, launching a “CAUTI bootcamp,” which has dramatically diminished catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and dealing with the lab to decrease blood tradition contamination charges.

“The work that the AdventHealth IPC workforce is endeavor and the success they’ve achieved could be inconceivable with out correct staffing,” mentioned Tania Bubb, Ph.D., RN, CIC, FAPIC, 2024 APIC president. “Their success is a testomony to the help obtained from hospital leaders and likewise to Luz’s means to show that funding in an infection prevention can influence the entire facility. Instruments just like the APIC IP Staffing Calculator and the one which Luz used can assist services quantify IPC staffing must make the case for enough assets.”

Offered by
Affiliation for Professionals in An infection Management