The posting
The Infection Preventionist plays an integral role in the success of our team, our community and creating a place our residents are proud to call home. The primary purpose of this position is coordinating all activities of the infection prevention and control and antibiotic stewardship programs in accordance with nationally recognized guidelines, The Joint Commission Nursing Care Center Infection Prevention and Antibiotic Stewardship standards, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requirements.
Essential Job Functions
- Sets standards, supporting implementation of and evaluation of infection prevention practices to prevent the development and spread of healthcare-associated infections. Prevention practices include but are not limited to those pertaining to hand hygiene, standard and transmission-based precautions including the use of personal protective equipment, proper maintenance, and management of devices such as catheters, and environmental cleaning and disinfection.
- Develops infection prevention and control, antibiotic stewardship, vaccination, and COVID related policies and procedures. Policies and procedures are based on evidence-based practices and nationally recognized standards.
- Reviews infection control policies and procedures annually and update as needed.
- Collaborates with members of the management team to assure infection prevention standards are followed in the environment.
- Reviews and updates infection prevention and control plan and antibiotic stewardship plan annually based on results of previous year's performance (i.e., surveillance and antibiotic use data) and the results of the infection control risk assessment.
- Leads the Infection Prevention Committee on establishing goals that are aligned with results from the infection control risk assessment.
- Informs residents, resident representatives, and family members as needed regarding infection prevention and control and antibiotic stewardship procedures and best practices applicable to them.
- Conducts outcome surveillance by identifying and documenting infections, calculates infection rates, and analyzes data to inform decision making.
- Develops and implements process surveillance to evaluate compliance and communicates findings to quality assurance committee and staff.
- Facilitates outbreak investigations and implementation of prevention measures to control the outbreak.
- Ensures public health is notified of reportable diseases.
- Supports implementation of vaccination programs for vaccine preventable diseases and ensures tracking of staff and resident vaccination status and reasons for declination.
- Assures standards are established to ensure staff are excluded from work or direct resident care activities or that appropriate mitigation measures are in place when the staff member may have a condition that is potentially transmissible to others.
- Establish processes to ensure staff who have, are suspected of having, or have been occupationally exposed to an infectious pathogen are referred for assessment and potential testing, prophylaxis/treatment, or counseling.
- Coordinate with environmental services to implement best practices to prevent cross-contamination in the care environment and coordinate with maintenance staff on water management program.
- Active member of the quality assurance performance improvement (QAPI) committee and working with QAPI committee/program, and other key staff to strengthen infection prevention practices.
- Leads the Infection Prevention Committee by setting the agenda and frequency of meetings and tracking follow up to assure goals are met.
- Facilitates quality improvement processes such as root cause analysis to develop action plans for improving practices.
- Supports antibiotic stewardship initiatives by tracking inappropriate antibiotic use, summarizing antibiotic use, facilitates antibiotic stewardship committee and antibiotic use reviews, and distributing antibiogram annually.
- Collaborates with community partners and other healthcare facilities to help prevent transmission of infection across the continuum of care.
- Other job-related duties as assigned.
Knowledge and Critical Skills
- Be able to make independent decisions and follow instructions.
- Deal tactfully with personnel, prospects, residents, family members, visitors, government agencies/personnel, and the public.
- Capable of working with ill, disabled, elderly, and emotionally upset people within the facility.
- Communicate effectively in a manner that is sufficient for effective communication with supervisors, team members, prospects, residents, and families.
Education and Experience
- Must meet all applicable state and federal requirements for this position.
- Must have primary professional training in nursing, medical technology, microbiology, epidemiology, or other related field.
- Must have completed specialized training in infection prevention and control.
Supervisory Responsibility
This position does not have any direct reports or supervisory requirements.
Westchester Gardens Health & Rehabilitation has served the Clearwater community since 1989. Here, team members serve a range of lifestyles and care levels, including rehabilitation and long-term care hospice care. We take pride in delivering Platinum Service®, our commitment to put residents and their families at the heart of everything we do. Join our team and come see why our team members consistently place Westchester Gardens Health & Rehabilitation above other communities as a great place to work.
Enjoy the total rewards of competitive pay plus benefits centered on you while performing meaningful work.
FL Clearinghouse | Florida Agency for Health Care Administration
