The Vital Role of the Infection Preventionist in Long-Term Care

The Vital Role of the Infection Preventionist in Long-Term Care

The Infection Preventionist (IP) plays a crucial role in preventing and controlling infections in long-term care facilities. An Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) program ensures compliance with regulatory standards, reduces healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), and promotes safety for residents and staff.

Key areas of focus for the Infection Preventionist include:

Surveillance and Monitoring

Awareness of infections minimizes risk and ensures the safety of both residents and staff. Effective surveillance helps identify trends and outbreaks early, allowing for prompt intervention and improved outcomes.

Key actions include:

• • Tracking infections, such as UTIs, pneumonia, and MDROs using standardized criteria
  • Monitoring for outbreaks (e.g., COVID-19, Influenza, and norovirus) and reporting per regulatory guidelines.
  • Ensuring cross-departmental communication regarding staff illness, outbreak status, and areas requiring transmission-based precautions
  • Conducting regular audits and risk assessments to identify trends and corrective actions.

Vaccination Programs

Vaccination is essential in long-term care, as older adults and immunocompromised residents are at increased risk for severe illness. from infections. Overcoming vaccine hesitancy and ensuring adherence are key to a program success.

Best practices include:

• • Educating and offering vaccinations (COVID-19, flu, pneumococcal, RSV, shingles) to all residents- even if previously declined
  • Encouraging staff vaccinations to minimize the transmission and enhance facility safety
  • Maintaining vaccination records for both residents and staff while tracking immunization rates
  • Monitoring and updating protocols based on CDC, CMS, and state health department guidelines.

Antibiotic Stewardship

Preventing multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) is a primary goal of antibiotic stewardship programs (ASP). Proper antibiotic selection, dosing and duration improve resident outcomes while reducing antimicrobial resistance. Key strategies include:

• • Reviewing the current ASP for efficacy and regulatory compliance
  • Educating staff on the risks of antibiotic overuse and resistance
  • Coordinating efforts with providers and consultant pharmacists to track and trend prescribing patterns.

Environmental Cleaning & Disinfection

Residents in long-term care are highly vulnerable to infections. A comprehensive cleaning and disinfection program reduces HAIs and enhances safety.

Monitoring for best practices may include:

• • Observations of cleaning of high-touch surfaces (e.g., bedrails, wheelchairs)’, and disinfection of shared equipment (e.g., glucometers).
  • Ensuring EPA-approved disinfectants are used with correct contact times
  • Educating all staff on cleaning and disinfection protocols.
  • Conducting routine audits to ensure compliance.

Education & Training

Education is the foundation of infection prevention. Ongoing staff training promotes compliance, reduces infections, and enhances resident safety. and maintaining regulatory compliance. Ensuring all staff are trained and effectively implementing infection control practices will reduce infections and adverse outcomes, increase staff confidence, and improve quality of care and safety.

Key areas for training:

• • Educate all staff on infection prevention basics (hand hygiene, PPE use, and compliance with cleaning and disinfection)
  • Respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette for staff, residents, and visitors
  • Visual signage as reminders for infection control measures
  • Routine observations of care and cleaning practices
  • Integration of outbreak response into emergency preparedness drills

Looking to hardwire infection prevention, quality assurance and compliance into your facility’s operations? Join Proactive starting March 19th for the webinar series “Secrets of a Great Department Head”. This series offers role specific action planning for:

• Director of Nursing
• Activities & Social Services
• Dietary
• Housekeeping & Maintenance
• Administrators

Enhance facility-wide systems for infection prevention and beyond!

Infection Preventionists save the date for our IP Workshop coming in May!  Learn more and register here!