Infection Preventionist Roles and Services within a Healthcare System and Beyond

Presenter:

• Benjamin Kaetterhenry MT ASCP

Description of Session:

This presentation will describe the various functions performed by Infection Prevention within a healthcare system. Individual Infection Prevention practitioners can operate in a variety of settings ranging from hospitals, surgical centers, ambulatory clinics, to long-term care and skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities, or government public health programs and agencies. Some of functions performed at these settings include surveillance and public health reporting for infections with epidemiologically important organisms often identified by the laboratory, alert the lab and other departments to emerging infectious agents and mitigation strategies to improve safety, education and monitoring of compliance to hand hygiene and PPE practices and evaluate exposure risks. Other responsibilities include surveillance for surgical site infections, healthcare associated infections, monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of cleaning practices, Monitoring antibiotic usage, sterile equipment disinfection practices, monitoring for regulatory updates, abstracting healthcare quality data, and coordinating vaccination programs.

A certificate of participation will be granted to each participant based on 1.0 contact hours of instruction toward credit.

This program is sponsored by the WSLH, which is an approved provider of continuing education programs in the clinical laboratory sciences by the ASCLS P.A.C.E. program.

As part of the new P.A.C.E. continuing education process, please go to the ASCLS CE Organizer web site to print your P.A.C.E. certificates. You will search for the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene programs under the “Other P.A.C.E. Programs” tab on the ASCLS CE Organizer web site. You will be asked for a code number to print the certificate. We will provide you this number during the webinar.

Please note that the deadline for receiving P.A.C.E. education credit for this webinar is May 22nd, 2025.

Materials:

• Infection Preventionist Roles and Services within a Healthcare System and Beyond – Presentation
• WCLN Webinar – Infection Preventionist Roles and Services within a Healthcare System and Beyond