St. Barnabas Hospital supports a hospital-wide commitment to an effective and active Infection Control Program. The major objectives of the Program are:

(l) To assure high quality of patient care and employee health by implementing the components of the Infection Control Program (surveillance, education and consultation).

(2) To participate in and support programs implemented by the Hospital for purposes of education and research involving Infection Control activities.

Guidelines used as a basis for developing policies and procedures which affect patient care and employee health are developed using the recommendations and standards of the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAHO), the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention U.S. Public Health Service (CDC), the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and current recommendations of the Association for Practitioners in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) as well as other accepted standards of practice in relation to the employee safety and hospital environment.

Controlling and containing the spread of infectious agents to other patients is an important function of the four Infection Control personnel.  First, reports are received from the Microbiology Lab.  The Coordinator then makes clinical rounds of inpatient areas correlating this information with the actual clinical conditions of the patients.  In addition, the medical, antibiotic and temperature records, as well as discussion with the physician and nurses caring for the patient are used to determine whether or not a nosocomial (hospital acquired) infection is present.

Data collection allows us to constantly monitor the incidence and types of infections occurring in our patient/client and to determine in a rational manner what actions are appropriate to take.  We make recommendations at the time of unit rounds to nurses and physicians as well as through follow-up, possible infectious events that may affect other patients or staff members.

Through the Infection Control Committee, which is comprised of representatives from Medical, Surgical, Nursing and Administrative services, as well as ancillary services, problems, issues and the relevant occurrences of new or important microorganisms seen in our environment are discussed and solutions sought.  Infections occurring in employees are also discussed when they may impact on the St. Barnabas Hospital community in general.

In-service education by the Infection Control employees is directed toward epidemiology of disease occurrence and management of patients relevant to Infection Control, in both the inpatient and outpatient setting.