Decontamination
The purpose of this assignment is to discuss and rationalise the key requirements for decontamination of patient commodes in an Acute Hospital Trust, demonstrating the application of these requirements and how they impact on patient safety. Decontamination can be defined as the process, or combination of processes, that remove or inactivate contaminants, resulting in the prevention of these potential pathogens making contact with vulnerable areas and developing in to infection.
The Health and Social Care Act 2008: Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance (Department of Health (DH), 2010) recommends that, in order to reduce the risk of infection to patients, a health care provider should have appropriate methods of decontamination in place for equipment that comes in to direct contact with a patient and/or their bodily fluids. These methods should be reflected in appropriate local policies and procedures and assurance of their implementation demonstrated through audit.
As an integral part of clinical governance, the purpose of clinical audit is to improve quality of patient experience, care and the outcomes of this care (NICE, 2002). Following the audit cycle, on analysis of the data collected, if standards are not being met, changes must be implemented to improve this – these changes should aim to meet the standards undergoing audit or exceed them. This approach to practice is also advocated by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) and is clearly illustrated in their ‘Circle of Safety’ (NPSA, 2003).
A component of the Acute Hospital Trust’s Infection Prevention and Control Annual Plan of Work is an audit programme. As part of this audit programme, spot checks of commode cleanliness are undertaken. The audit tool used is a simple visual tool that scrutinises cleanliness of the commode, whether it is in a good state of repair and whether or not a system has been used to identify that the commode has been decontaminated.
The Health and Social Care Act 2008: Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance (Department of Health (DH), 2010) recommends that, in order to reduce the risk of infection to patients, a health care provider should have appropriate methods of decontamination in place for equipment that comes in to direct contact with a patient and/or their bodily fluids. These methods should be reflected in appropriate local policies and procedures and assurance of their implementation demonstrated through audit.
As an integral part of clinical governance, the purpose of clinical audit is to improve quality of patient experience, care and the outcomes of this care (NICE, 2002). Following the audit cycle, on analysis of the data collected, if standards are not being met, changes must be implemented to improve this – these changes should aim to meet the standards undergoing audit or exceed them. This approach to practice is also advocated by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) and is clearly illustrated in their ‘Circle of Safety’ (NPSA, 2003).
A component of the Acute Hospital Trust’s Infection Prevention and Control Annual Plan of Work is an audit programme. As part of this audit programme, spot checks of commode cleanliness are undertaken. The audit tool used is a simple visual tool that scrutinises cleanliness of the commode, whether it is in a good state of repair and whether or not a system has been used to identify that the commode has been decontaminated.
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