Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC)

The IPAC team aims to empower everyone to protect patients, staff, and visitors from preventable infections.

COVID-19 RESOURCES

The team provides services at BC Children’s Hospital (BCCH), BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre (BCW), the BC Mental Health & Substance Use Services programs offered on site (BCMHSUS-C&W), and Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children (SHHCC). The IPAC Manual provides a summary of the IPAC practices that shall be practiced while providing care in all programs and services at these sites.

About Us

Our vision: Empowering everyone to prevent infections!

Our mission is to ensure the protection of patients, staff and visitors from preventable infections. We aim to achieve this prevention through:

A proactive approach to the current and evolving challenges
Facilitating solutions and implementations
Expert consultation based on applicable regulations, evidence and best practice
Collaboration with local, provincial, and national partners (including patient/family) to implement infection prevention and control activities.

The IPAC team is involved in a variety of activities that include:

Development of policies and procedures
Surveillance
Outbreak management
Hand hygiene program
Guidance on cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization processes
Construction consultation
Knowledge translation (education and research)

Infection Control Committee

The site-wide Infection Control Committee holds monthly meetings and functions as the central decision-making and policy-making body for IPAC.
The purpose of this committee is to ensure the safest environment that is practical for the patients, family, visitors, and staff of the hospital in all situations involving the transfer of infectious agents.
The chair of this committee reports directly to the Medical Advisory Committee.
Members of the Infection Control Committee include (but are not restricted to) representatives from Medicine, Public Health, Pharmacy, Sterile Processing Department, IPAC, Support Services, and Program/Site representatives.

Purpose of Manual

The purpose of this manual is to provide a summary of the IPAC standards that shall be used while providing care in all programs and services at BCCH, BCW, BCMHSUS-CW, and SHHCC.

The manual outlines Routine Practices and Additional Precautions (RP/AP). The goal of RP/AP is to reduce the transmission of health care-associated infections. It also contains outbreak management, reportable diseases, signs, fact sheets, information on toys and pets and a table of selected infectious diseases, conditions and microorganisms for easy reference.

Many resources were consulted in the development of this manual including current regulations, standards, scientific research, and expert opinions. Examples include but are not limited to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), BC Provincial Infection Control Network (PICNet), Accreditation Canada, and the Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee (PIDAC) in Ontario.

In addition to the standardsoutlined in this manual, programs such as Laboratory, Operating Room, Sterile Processing Department, Housekeeping, and Food Services will have written standards for the prevention of infection transmission specific to their own service or departments. These standards and their associated references should be used, in conjunction with this manual, to provide comprehensive information for the end user.

Explanation of languageand how terms are applied throughout this manual:

‘shall’ indicates mandatory requirements based on legislated requirements;
‘must’ indicates best practice, i.e., the minimum standard based on current recommendations in the medical literature;
‘should’ indicates a recommendation or that which is advised but not mandatory; and
‘may’ indicates an advisory or optional statement.

Revisions to Manual

The recommended standards in this manual reflect the best evidence and expert opinion available at the time of writing. As new information becomes available, this document will be reviewed and updated by the IPAC service.

Users are encouraged to suggest improvements, including information that should be inserted, deleted, repositioned, or rewritten.

All suggestions are welcome and can be emailed to the C&W Infection Prevention and Control team at IPACS@cw.bc.ca or provided in writing to any member of the IPAC service.