Infection Prevention and Control Lead, Full-time

Infection Control and Prevention (IPAC) Lead

Status: Permanent

Type: Full-time x2

Department: _Corporate Services - Tri-County Mennonite Homes

Reports To: CEO; with the responsibility to support the Senior Leadership Team

Position Overview/Summary : TCMH supports two campuses of care and a developmental services program, providing person-centered care in New Hamburg and Stratford. We continue to place quality of life, family wellness, community involvement and living with dignity at the forefront of our vision.

TCMH is seeking an experienced IPAC Lead to join our team. The IPAC Lead will:

• Manage the Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) program for TCMH through the involvement of multidisciplinary teams across all sites.
• Promote interdisciplinary health management of Infection Prevention and Control Program.
• Develop and deliver Infection Prevention and Control education in collaboration with the Senior Leadership Team.
• Continuously evaluates and improves the IPC policies and practices following the Quality and Risk Management Program and Public Health (PH) direction.

Wage : $29.60 - $34.33

Responsibilities : Community Driven:

• The IPAC Lead develops positive relationships with all staff and builds an area of expertise in Infection Prevention and Control in the Homes.
• Liaises with Local Public Health Unit, IPAC hubs and other related health care facilities.
• Participate in the leadership team to understand, influence and integrate programs consistent with TCMH and its Accountability Framework.

Caring Service:

• Fosters a culture of awareness related to Infection Prevention and Control principles of practice.
• Ensures measures are in place to prevent the transmission of infections within our homes.
• Ensure surveillance and screening program is in place for individuals in care and staff. Review surveillance data, monitor for infection trends.
• Coordinates annual flu clinics and immunization programs.
• Develops and implements best practices in delivery of Infection Prevention and Control, including policy revision.
• Leads all Outbreak management activities following the Outbreak checklist framework form to ensure all IPAC measures are in place at the time of suspected/confirmed Outbreak.
• Liaises with Public Health department during Outbreaks.
• Monitors, in collaboration with DOC/ADOC/ED, all persons in care placed on isolation and offers support to the team Leaders as needed.
• Ensure daily outbreak huddles occur during an outbreak, documentation including minutes and follow up actions are recorded.
• Completes post outbreak analysis and trending.
• Establishes and leads the quarterly Infection Prevention and Control committee.
• Coordinates IPAC annual program evaluation and ensures written records are kept to include the date of the evaluation, the names of the participants in the evaluation, a summary of the changes made and the date of that those changes were implemented.

Professional People:

• Provide coaching and mentoring to staff in a positive and supportive manner regarding Infection Prevention and Control practices.
• Maintains a professional relationship with all employees at TCMH including working closely with other members of the leadership team.
• Provides recommendation to SLT on effective management of Infection Prevention and Control Program.
• Develops and monitors, in collaboration with Departmental Managers, all Infection Prevention and Control programs for effectiveness and efficiency.
• Coordinates Occupational Health and Safety for staff members related to infection transmission (follows up with staff, reports to OH&S Committee, MOL and others as required).
• Participates in OH&S Committee meetings and reports on IPAC statistics as required.
• Works in collaboration with Manager of Health and Safety to organize and complete staff mask fit testing.
• Works in collaboration with the Directors of Care and ED's to implement effective Infection Prevention and Control education program.
• Creates content to assist with educating persons in care, team members and visitors. Assist with new staff, students' orientation on safe IPAC practices.

Innovative Approaches

• Keeps abreast of new and best practices through research and participation in community networking groups. Report on regional data trends and actions taken at regional levels.
• Explores new and innovative methodologies related to Infection Prevention and Control practices and effectively facilitate change.
• Risk management activities include monitoring all Infection Prevention and Control activities, gathering and analyzing data, and benchmarking against the industry.
• Ensures that the symptoms indicating the presence of infections are analyzed daily to detect the presence of infection and reviewed at least once a month to detect trends for the purpose of reducing the incidence of infections and outbreaks.
• Identifies areas of improvement based on trend analysis and benchmarking d