1. APIC Greater New York Chapter 13 A Day in the life of an Infection Preventionist Prevention Strategist, Winter Christine Blackmore, BSN, MPH,CIC Department of Epidemiology
01\18/17

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3. An occasional column depicting the everyday happenings in the world of Infection Prevention and Control
Angela Vassallo, MPH, MS, CIC, FAPIC, Director, Infection Prevention/Epidemiology. A member of APIC’s Communications Committee Facility: Providence St. John’s Health Center, Santa Monica, California (20 blocks from the beach: doctors wear linen and espadrilles)
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7. 8:30 AM
Walk into office with soy green tea latte in hand- it is L.A of course. Sit down to check messages and
Listen to voic s, answer pager (in 2016!) and answer call of surgeon with lice ( should the ASC move patients to another room?
C. diff patient walking in the hallway. Is this bad? It’s not fair that s/he can’t walk around too!!
Unapproved therapy dog on med-surg with irate visitor who wants to see someone in charge!!!
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9. 9:30 AM
Daily safety huddle. Hospital leadership discuss pressing issues of the day.
At the end, the topic of dogs in our hospital takes over the discussion
There is no resolution
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10. 10:15 a.m.
Go to café for coffee and am stopped by a random hospital visitor.
She thanks me for the work that I do and says that she and her family love the hospital.
SO COOL!!
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11. 10:30 a.m.
Return to my office to begin daily surveillance- reviewing all positive cultures for m the day before.
I divide those that need further review among the team (potential SSIs to the other IP, potential CLABSIs to me)
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12. 11:00 a.m.
I sign on to an online Providence system meeting to discuss the recent heater-cooler alerts from the CDC
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13. 12 Noon
I head to the conference down the hall from my office for the monthly Hospital Council leadership meeting where we get updates from the CEO, CFO, etc.
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15. 1 p.m.
Either the other IP or I head to the new employee orientation where we discuss IP practices at our hospital.
Maybe today I can send the other IP and go get lunch now?
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16. 1:30 p.m.
Paged from the new employee orientation by the charge RN on oncology who would like to take the C. diff patient off isolation so that he could be transferred to a SNF.
I walk over to discuss in person-the SNF won’t accept isolation patients. This turns into a long conversation about the importance of following IP practices to keep staff and patients safe.
Polite-I WILL NOT TAKE THE PATIENT OFF ISOLATION
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17. 2:15 p.m.
Meet with IP team (2) for weekly update to discuss a paper we’re working on for APIC presentation proposals.
Discuss next month’s Infection Prevention Committee meeting.
We trade the pager as it is now his week to be on call.
YAY!!!
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18. 3 p.m.
I answer a phone call from my boss (CNO) asking if I knew that the C. diff patient’s therapy dog was turned away from the facility.
Are we sure it’s not an ADA-approved therapy dog?
We need to explain policy/practice to risk management because someone complained and risk wants to be educated in order to defend the decision.
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19. 3 p.m. cont’d
I explain that the dog I knew about was visiting someone on med-surg and that the C. diff patient was on oncology.
I then learn that there are apparently two dogs in question.
This is a new one!
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22. 3:30 p.m..
I sign on to the monthly California APIC conference call for the board of directors to discuss our new board slate for 2017
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23. 4:30 p.m.
I start the next call-CA APIC Education Committee conference call- we discuss plans for the January 2017CA APIC Foundation in Infection Prevention course that we will hold in Newport Beach
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24. 6:00 p.m.
I respond to any important remaining s (I sent the IP report for the upcoming Critical Care Committee.
I explained how NHSN calculates the SIR for hospital- onset C. diff to the CMO and agreed to join him in a Providence regional call led by the CMO to discuss C. diff.
Then I try to leave.
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25. 6:00 p.m. cont’d
As I begin to walk out the door, I get paged by the new oncology night RN ( I thought the pager was handed off?) asking if she can discontinue the Contact isolation for a C. diff patient because the attending would like to discharge the patient to a SNF…………!!
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26. 6:30 p.m. Driving home (behind Brad Pitt in his black
Escalade on the highway)
The other IP calls me on my cell to say he got a page about a C. diff patient and wants to know if I already spoke to them so that we’re on the same page.
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28. Thank You
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