Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) Prevention
HAIs are infections people can develop as a result of receiving medical care. HAIs can happen in any healthcare facility, including hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, hemodialysis facilities, and long-term care facilities. A wide variety of bacteria, fungi, viruses, or other, less common pathogens can cause HAIs.
Infection Control Assessment & Response (ICAR) Unit
About Us
The ICAR Unit is part of the Infection Control, Healthcare, & Environmental Epidemiology Program within the Communicable Disease Service at the 樱花视频 Department of Health. The unit comprises subject matter experts specializing in the prevention and containment of HAIs emphasizing patient/resident and healthcare personnel safety and quality improvement. Our subject matter experts include nurses, nurse practitioners, surgical technicians, data analyists, and epidemiologists with a wide range of specialties and expertise, including long-term care, acute care hospitals, hemodialysis, and outpatient settings such as corrections, operating rooms home health, hospice, and pediatrics. This unit provides infection prevention and control-focused assessments and consultation to various healthcare facilities, including acute care, long-term care, hemodialysis, and other outpatient settings.
ICAR Consultations
The ICAR Unit seeks to partner with healthcare facilities of all types to participate in a free, non-regulatory assessment of their infection prevention program and practices. The ICAR Unit offers unique services focused on preventing and containing organisms in healthcare settings. Containment-focused consultations are a targeted approach to disrupt and mitigate transmission during an outbreak. Prevention-focused consultations take a comprehensive approach to enhancing and sustaining infection prevention and control programs, emphasizing patient/resident and healthcare personnel safety and quality improvement within facilities.
During the consultation, the ICAR Unit will:
- Provide infection prevention self-assessment tools and resources
- Facilitate discussions with participants to assess infection prevention practices and program activities
- Detect infection prevention gaps through assessment
- Bolster outbreak preparedness and response
- Coordinate a post-assessment follow-up to provide additional support and resources