Engineered Infection Prevention

1 hour course from Franke Kitchen Systems LLC 

Franke is dedicated to ensuring that designers and architects have the most up-to-date information on commercial technology for hand hygiene in the healthcare sector to help increase health and safety and limit the spread of illness. As a result, this course was created to discuss “Engineered Infection Prevention”. This CEU aims to teach attendees about the importance of proper hand hygiene with stress on limiting the spread of healthcare acquired infections (HAI’s)– one of the leading causes of nosocomial deaths. It aims to create awareness on the widely overlooked issue of poor hand hygiene and surface disinfection and how it can be effectively prevented by simply leveraging technology within the room design. 

Learning Objectives: 

• Understand and explore the problem healthcare facilities face throughout North America due to hospital acquired infections (HAI) and study some of the emerging CSA standards to improve healthcare design. 
• Identify the emerging technologies that can make the largest impact in the reduction of hospital acquired infections. Understanding and adopting the technologies below in healthcare design can lead to improved health and safety of both staff and patients in these facilities: A. UV Disinfection B. Copper Touch Surfaces C. Ozone Disinfection, Hand Hygiene Sinks 
• Understand and explore the potential benefit to hand hygiene by using ozonated water. Hand- washing with ozonated water is more effective than traditional methods even if a patient doesn’t use soap (behaviorally). Staff in healthcare facilities are monitored for hand hygiene compliance. The same cannot be said about patients. Patient hand hygiene is a key focus to engineer infection control measures where facility policies have little effect. Participants will understand the benefit of ozonated hand washing for patients which will have a direct impact on reducing their chance of acquiring an infection themselves. 
• Understand and explore the potential benefits of ozonated water in reducing biofilms in hospital wastes and traps. Hospital sinks have been shown to be a key source of healthcare outbreaks and infections. Through engineered controls discussed in this course, these outbreaks can be prevented; thereby protecting all occupants in the facility.