Blog: How Your ASC Can Utilize an Intranet for Infection Control Compliance

Infection control compliance is a crucial aspect in any ASC – Ambulatory Surgery Center. Some of the most important things to remember: education is not a one-time thing, communication is key, and infection control is a team effort.

An Intranet acts as a central medium for all communication and ASC happenings. It will provide you with necessary tools to make compliance management run smoothly and simply. Here are some of the best practices for infection control compliance and how an Intranet can assist you with implementing them:

1. Ongoing Education

Learning compliance processes and the do’s and don’ts should not be a one- time occurrence at the beginning of training. Your staff should be consistently refreshed and updated in order to provide the best and most current possible work.

How an Intranet can help: An Intranet can provide updates to all employees on any parts of the plans or processes that have changed. Additionally, webinars, eBooks and other educational supplements on the topic can be uploaded and distributed, along with digital training programs and schedules for in-person training days and times.

Read acknowledgement features and notifications can track staff readership to ensure they are reviewing training materials. Leadership can easily report on read acknowledgements or notice of acceptance on any document or training material shared through the system.

2. Efficient communication

As with any job, having strong communication among team members is imperative, if not the most important aspect for success. In fact, according to Becker’s Healthcare, 1,744 patient deaths have been linked to miscommunication in the last five years.

How an Intranet can help: Your Intranet acts as your central source for all-staff communication across all departments. Utilize a home page newsfeed for updates around the organization. Employees can use forums to communicate within or throughout departments, or can inbox or instant message each other. Communication can be standardized so information retrieval and sharing is consistent. This promotes high quality operational efficiencies and enhanced productivity when all staff is in the know.

3. Keep up-to-date with infection control societies

Nationally recognized societies such as the CDC update their guidelines regularly. Checking these on a normal basis and updating your processes along with them is a sure way to keep your organization compliant.

How an Intranet can help: Link to these societies’ external sites and receive notifications upon updates on your Intranet. Keep a specific resources page that employees can refer to and have access to these sites along with other updates and helpful sources. Showcase newsfeeds so staff only need to access one location for the timeliest updates from these resources.

4. Make a plan and stick to it

Ensure your infection control plan meets all requirements before implementing it. Audit and keep track of staff to make sure everyone is following correct procedures in order to remain compliant.

How an Intranet can help: With easy-to-use workflows, search functions and means of communication, your staff should have no problem accessing appropriate documents or information when it comes to audits, emergencies or moments of questions. Additionally, keep a page with detailed plans and schedules intact. Collaboration features and task management tools can be used to document meetings, share responsibilities and update workflow. Dashboards and control panels can be set up to alert management of program process status for quick overviews on plan implementation efforts.

5. Evaluate and update your plan regularly

Evaluating your plan will ensure that you are always going about processes in the most careful and efficient ways while working within the fast moving ASC industry. Make sure your plan fits the work styles of your staff and make changes accordingly when reviewing the program.

How an Intranet can help: Distribute quick, simple, digital surveys through your Intranet to gauge your healthcare worker’s take on procedures and workflows. You will also have access to metrics and analytics to see how staff utilizes the Intranet, updates, and plans. Use this information to tweak your plans in a way that works as smooth as possible for your employees.

6. Make infection control a part of the culture

Make compliance processes not only an integral part of the work day, but second nature.

How an Intranet can help: Encourage staff to think about infection control with quick reminders or tip-of-the-day. Create regular programs to keep workers updated and well-trained and add them as events or in the calendar. Highlight stories on the topic on the home page or internal departmental pages. Create awareness through onboarding new hires so they are familiar with the procedures from day one. As always, stress the importance of communication during any moments of question or clarification needs.

*Best practices information from Becker’s Healthcare

Like this blog post? Download the information now as a guide!

For information on HospitalPORTAL products and how we can work with your organization, schedule a free demo or request a quote today.