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INTRODUCING THE NEW WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH LOGO AND WEBSITE
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The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) is starting the new year with a new logo. The DOH design team and leadership worked hard to create a logo that best embodies DOH's core values of equity, innovation, and engagement.
The new logo contains a stylized W for Washington, an H for health, and even our state’s silhouette, while the four color blocks represent our four public health divisions. The agency’s website has also been updated to match the new logo’s colors and be more visually appealing.
Be on the lookout for this and similar variations of the new logo on DOH resources going forward!
Check out the newly designed DOH website.
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WEBINARS & TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
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Join Our IP Chat Call Series
Infection Prevention and Control Health Assistance Team (IPCHAT) for Skilled Nursing Facilities. This twice a month call series brings together experienced and novice infection preventionists to share challenges, solutions, and best practices. Everyone has something to learn! Everyone has something to teach!
IPChat Flyer
1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month, 11 AM PST • Register
DOH Staffing Chat: How do we keep you in long-term care?"
The Healthcare-Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance Section is conducting “Staffing Chat: How do we keep you in long-term care?” focus groups to address the turnover rate in long-term care (LTC) staffing. Turnover in LTC staff has been shown to impact the burden of healthcare-associated infections. This will be a 45-minute online focus group for direct patient care staff (CNA, Home Care Aide, LPN, RN, and more) working in Washington state LTC facilities, with the goal to provide suggestions for facilities to improve staff retention.
HAI Staffing Chat Flyer
March 3rd, 4 PM PST • RSVP
March 8th, 10 AM PST • RSVP
Age-Friendly Public Health Systems (AFPHS) Monthly Trainings
The 2023 AFPHS training series will provide guidance on implementing the AFPHS 6Cs (based on the 6Cs Framework). Each session will highlight specific examples within the 6Cs and how departments of health can make healthy aging a priority, one activity at a time.
February’s training will feature Dr. Kina White, Director, Office of Community Health Improvement, who will share the strategies that the Mississippi State Department of Health is using the develop an age-friendly eco-system in the state.
This session will be held February 16th, 12 pm PST • Register
Improving the Vaccination Experience: Reducing Pain and Anxiety for Children and Adults
Anxiety about needles and injections affects as many as 2 out of 3 children and 1 out of 4 adults; this anxiety can contribute to dreading, delaying, or avoiding vaccinations, even when the importance of preventing illness is understood. The good news is that there are safe, effective, and practical steps that those who administer vaccines and vaccine recipients, or their caregivers can take to reduce vaccination-related pain and anxiety and increase confidence in vaccination.
Feb 28th, 10 AM PST • Register
Tune in to Safe Healthcare: A CDC Webinar Series
CDC, in collaboration with various clinical partners, presents the webinar series, Tune in to Safe Healthcare, which focuses on a variety of infection control and prevention topics. These webinars feature CDC and external experts and serve as a tool to educate healthcare providers on best practices to improve patient safety. Webinars are offered free of cost and some of them offer continuing education. The webinar series can be viewed on CDC’s Safe Healthcare Webinar Playlist.
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Enhanced Barrier Precautions |
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Project First Line is a nationwide project supported by the CDC and the Washington State Department of Health to provide frontline healthcare workers with infection prevention and control education.
 Become an Infection Control Superhero with Washington State Project Firstline
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Washington Project Firstline is excited to announce a new series of training modules for professionals working in long-term care facilities. These online, interactive modules will train and prepare long-term care workers to become infection control superheroes who can reduce the spread of disease at work and home.
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We encourage you to print the attached flyer and post it in your breakroom for your staff.
Washington Project Firstline Promotional Flyer
The six modules focus on the following:
- Infection Control
- How Germs Can Spread on Surfaces
- How Germs Can Spread via Respiratory Droplets
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- Proper Hand Hygiene
- Proper Use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
- Cleaning and Disinfection
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The modules are educational, informative and fun, and take approximately 20-minutes each to complete. Staff who complete all six modules will earn continuing education credits for two contact-hours through the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services and a two contact-hour CNE certificate through Continuing Nursing Education at the University of Washington School of Nursing.
Modules are available now at firstline.nwcphp.org.
*NEW* Washington Project Firstline Training
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Frontline Infection Prevention Champion Facility
90% frontline staff completes all 6 training modules.
Steps:
- Request a Facility Code
- Have staff members enter Facility Code in user profile.
- Notify staff to complete all six modules – they will receive 2 (free) contact hours of CEs.
- Close to 90%? Email Project Firstline to verify.
- Be recognized as a Frontline Infection Prevention Champion facility!
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Receive: Certificate, recognition on Washington Project Firstline webpage, and staff trained on infection prevention
Training Series:
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The Project First Line Podcast, hosted by the Washington State Department of Health, is geared toward frontline healthcare workers to bring awareness to infection prevention and public health practices. We identify the importance and impact of infection prevention on our lives and on the lives of our community. |
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State of infection prevention and control in nonacute care US settings: 2020 APIC MegaSurvey. Strengthening infection prevention and control programs in nonacute care settings is a national priority. Efforts require thorough and ongoing appraisal of organizational structures, human resources including personnel training and competencies, system challenges and adaptive strategies implemented. Assessment of those in infection preventionist (IP) roles outside of the acute care setting is necessary to capture ongoing changes and challenges in the IP profession.
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NEW Episode
Catch up on Previous Episodes
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TOPIC: Respiratory Protection
The DOH Occupational Health Team is hosting monthly 30-minute, Lunch & Learn sessions on specific respiratory protection topics. Sessions start promptly at 12:00 PM. Bring your topic questions to the session or email them ahead of time to HAI-FitTest@doh.wa.gov.
February 15 – APGs and Respirator Use
March 15 – Written Program Overview
April 19 – Who should be in the Respiratory Protection Program?
For more information contact Stella Daniels, Occupational Health Team Supervisor.
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Quarterly NHSN User Group for Hospitals
*CALL UPDATE: Calls have been changed to TEAMS*
Please contact Sandy Ng for a TEAMS invitation
All sessions are from 10:30 - 11:30 AM
April 11, 2023
July 11, 2023
October 10, 2023
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This is monthly forum for NHSN skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to share and collaborate, improve reporting accuracy, and increase user knowledge.
Please contact Paula Parsons for more information
Calls scheduled 2nd Thursday of the month, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Upcoming dates:
Mar 9, 2023
Apr 13, 2023
May 11, 2023
June 8, 2023
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Using mRNA technology for a universal flu vaccine
Researchers have long been working toward a universal vaccine that could protect against all known influenza types and prevent future flu pandemics. Read more.
Seniors left behind as public edges ‘back to normal’ after COVID-19
COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are a fraction of what they were at the beginning of the pandemic. But older Americans continue to bear the brunt, making up nearly all of the COVID-19 fatalities that still occur every day across the nation. Read more.
Assisted Living Direct-Care Workers, Administrators Differ in Patient Safety Culture Perceptions
Direct-care workers in assisted living facilities perceive more patient safety problems in their facilities than do administrators, a new AHRQ-funded study concluded. Although safety culture has been accepted as an important indicator of quality in acute care settings, and increasingly within nursing homes, it has remained largely unexamined in assisted living communities. Read more.
Aspergillus Mediastinitis & Endocarditis in a Pediatric Patient Complicating Cardiac Surgery and Bedside Chest Closure
A 5-day old male infant with congenital heart disease including aortic atresia and double outlet right ventricle was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) from an outside hospital. His initial procedure was a median sternotomy with bilateral pulmonary artery banding and intracardiac line placement on hospital day 5. Read more.
Infection Preventionists’ Detective Work Stopped an Outbreak of CRAB
This article describes a carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) cluster that was identified and stopped because of due diligence of the infection preventionists at an acute care facility in Louisiana. Infection Control Today, December 21, 2022. Read more.
Surgical Site Infection Prevention. A Review
Approximately 0.5% to 3% of patients undergoing surgery will experience infection at or adjacent to the surgical incision site. Compared with patients undergoing surgery who do not have a surgical site infection, those with a surgical site infection are hospitalized approximately 7 to 11 days longer. Read more.
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Preventing Bloodstream Infections in People on Dialysis
The latest CDC Vital Signs report focuses on people receiving dialysis treatment for end-stage kidney disease. Though necessary and lifesaving, dialysis does come with risks, including serious and potentially deadly staph bloodstream infections. The way a person’s blood circulation is connected to the dialysis machine, known as vascular access type, affects the risk for bloodstream infections. Race, ethnicity, and other factors can also impact a person’s risk. View the report.
ICAR Program Updates
In partnership with local health jurisdictions, the ICAR team provides free/non-regulatory Infection Control Assessment and Response (ICAR) consultations to long-term care, dental, dialysis, and other health care settings. View Updates.
Comagine: Infection Prevention and Control Services
Comagine Health’s education and consultation for infection prevention and control help protect staff and patients, create a standardized, evidence-based approach to infection prevention and mitigate costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Brochure.
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 Funding Still Available for 2022–23 Student Projects
The Northwest Center for Public Health Practice is still accepting applications to support student projects in Washington, Alaska, Idaho, and Oregon during the 2022–23 school year. Learn more about application deadlines and procedures and read about funded projects from past years. Applications close March 15, 2023.
Attention: Adult Family Homes, Assisted Living Facilities and Enhanced Services Facilities
New supports are coming beginning July 2023 for individuals in your setting with complex behavioral health needs. Currently, many individuals are provided additional support through exceptional rates paid by the MCOs but authorized through the Aging and Long-Term Support Administration (ALTSA). Changes are coming that will shift the payment for these additional support services to be paid directly by the Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) and HCA. Get additional information from the Health Care Authority (HCA) by signing up for notifications.
*ATTENTION NURSING HOMES*
To remain in compliance with the Nurse Aide 1135 waiver, Washington State is required to provide CMS monthly reports. As a part of the report process, the state needs to compile information from each CMS certified nursing home on a monthly basis. Please assist in this process by completing the 3-question survey.
A letter to NH Administrators regarding the following topic is now posted online:
A letter regarding the following topic is now available online:
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You are subscribed to Healthcare-Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance (HAI&AR) Newsletter for Washington State Department of Health. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.
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If you aren't already signed up for the Healthcare Associated Infections and Antibiotic Resistance newsletter, please visit the Department of Health's email subscribers page here.
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