Parvo and lepto and influenza—oh my! No matter how clean your practice seems to be, these and other dangerous pathogens could be lurking in the least obvious places, just waiting to sicken your patients, your clients, and your staff. The newly published 2018 AAHA Infection Control, Prevention, and Biosecurity Guidelines (ICPB) can help.

To prevent hospital-acquired infections, you have to do more than clean your hospital and wash your hands regularly. You must:

• Know the difference between cleaning and disinfecting and how to do both properly in your hospital. 
• Have a thorough understanding of how various pathogens are spread (and how you can prevent them from spreading.
• Know how to handle infectious patients (suspected or confirmed), including the questions to ask on the phone in order to identify a high-risk patient, how to spot one who comes into your hospital, and how to handle them to prevent the spread of disease.
• Understand how to properly clean and sanitize your hands. (Hint: Scrubbing before surgery is no longer seen as the only effective way to kill pathogens!)
• Provide thorough staff training and education to motivate them to take ownership of their role in ICPB.
• Have SOPs in place so everyone on your team does their part to prevent hospital-acquired infections.
• Empower your staff and choose an infection control practitioner to lead your infection control efforts.

It sounds like a daunting task, but you can do more to prevent hospital-acquired infections. Useful for every veterinary practice, these first-of-their-kind, mobile friendly guidelines feature:

• SOPs pertaining to cleaning and disinfection, hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, identifying high-risk patients, managing contagious patients in isolation, and much more
• An engaging staff training video to empower them to ensure a safe environment for your patients and team
• Personalized checklists of key tasks and other tools to improve compliance
• Valuable staff educational materials, including a process for elevating key team members to become “infection control practitioners”

You can foster pride in your team.

You can build trust with your clients.

You can maintain a positive online reputation.

You can create a truly safe and clean environment for your patients, clients, and staff.

Learn more at aaha.org/biosecurity.

These guidelines are supported by an educational grant from Virox Animal Health™.