Infection Control Co-ordinator

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ROLE SUMMARY
The role of the Safety, Health, Environmental and Infection Control Coordinator is to aid and assist hospital employees in the management of prevention, identification, and control of infections in patients and staff as well as to contribute and support the development and maintenance of a safe and healthy work environment.
This includes but are not limited to:
• Will be responsible to plan, develop and implement an infection control programme for the hospital using basic infection control standards.
• Implement and monitor OHS and Waste activities to continuously improve OHS (Occupational Health and Safety) and Waste Management.
• The identification of key risks and critical risk controls,
• Identifying and analysing training needs,
• Designing, conducting, and evaluating training.
• Coordinating and/or Managing OHS, IPC and waste administrative processes.
• To design, develop and implement innovative site-level activities to improve IPC, OHS and Waste Management.
KEY WORK OUTPUT AND ACCOUNTABILITIES
The key work outputs include:
Supporting the implementation and monitoring of IPC, OHS, Waste Management Systems, policies and procedures.
Facilitate, monitor, and support management practices and projects aimed at achieving an organizational culture focused on IPC, OHS & Waste.
Coordinate and support the development and maintenance of a safe and healthy work environment by ensuring identification of key risks, implementation, and maintenance of critical risk controls.
Co-ordinate processes for monitoring, measuring and evaluation of OHS, Waste & IPC performance.
Use data management systems for collecting and validating information relevant to IPC, OHS and Waste.
Communicate, engage with and influence line management and workers to mitigate risk and optimize effective infection prevention and control, waste management as well as optimising health and safety of workers and others at the workplace.
Apply legal, professional, and ethical standards to practise to promote compliance with applicable laws and regulations relating to OHS and waste.
Provide the necessary technical support in terms of Safety, Health, Environment (Waste) and Infection prevention and control.
CONSISTENCY OF CARE
Infection Control Management
Aid and assist all hospital employees in managing the prevention, identification and control of infections in patients and staff.
Plan, develop and implement an infection control programme for the hospital using basic infection control standards.
Responsible to the hospital management for reporting on a regular basis all infections in the hospital.
Review of environmental hygiene, cleanliness, the care of linen and waste on a regular basis and document results for discussion with hospital management.
Identify indications for environmental microbiological monitoring.
Notify the Department of Health timeously of notifiable diseases where applicable.
Ensure an environment safe from infection for all hospital staff.
Organise regular infection control committee meetings and document the proceedings.
Interpret results of diagnostic/laboratory results.
Differentiate among colonisation, infection and contamination when analysing laboratory results.
Identify occurrence, reservoirs, incubation periods, periods of communicability, modes of transmission, signs and symptoms and susceptibility associated with the disease process.
Recognise limitations and advantages of type of tests used to diagnose infectious processes.
Recognise epidemiologically significant organisms for immediate review and investigation.
Plan and implement the procedure used to identify and investigate an outbreak of infection (either community or hospital acquired) using accepted infection control standards.
Implement, when needed, isolation protocols that are effective and understandable to all hospital personnel.
Maintain an up-to-date infection control file that is available and accessible to all nursing and house-keeping staff
Maintain written and acceptable protocols for infectious diseases including VHF, SARS, Meningitis and Covid-19.
Accountable for the availability of all equipment needed for the management infectious diseases.
Facility and equipment management
Recommend specific equipment, personnel and resources for the infection prevention and control program.
Ensure the provision of protective clothing for all staff and members of the public when needed.
Supply appropriate and reliable disinfectants, sterilants and monitoring equipment and ensure that nursing and other staff understand the use of these items.
Safety, Health, Environmental and Quality (SHEQ) Programme
Compile and revise the annual SHEQ Year Programme with the relevant Facility Manger to ensure the Business and Strategic SHEQ objectives for the facility will be met.
Advocate, monitor and drive the protection and promotion of workers' health, the protection of the environment and contribution to a safe and sustainable development.
Provide technical support to drive current OHS and Waste practices to ensure company goals and objectives are achieved.
Co-ordinate the required SHEQ Risk Assessment and Management Processes at facility level
Ensure SHEQ Risks assessments are conducted and reviewed as per Legislative requirements and Group Policy.
Advise line managers on the recognition, evaluation and control of environmental factors or stressors arising in or from the workplace.
Support identification and implementation of critical controls for effective OHS risk management and OHS risk minimization.
Advise Line managers and workers on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and clothing, based on appropriate Risk Controls.
Monitor, evaluate and report on the effectiveness of hazard and risk controls with an emphasis on critical controls, including the identification of actual and potential failure in controls.
Conduct and co-ordinate workplace inspections/walkthrough surveys to evaluate effectiveness of risk controls.
Advise on Occupational Hygiene Survey requirements.
Implement, monitor and evaluate processes and procedures to investigate, analyze and report on incidents and nonconformities indicating failures or inadequacies of controls.
Provide facility management and operations with legal compliance advice on strategy requirements for Safety, Health and Waste related acts and legislation.
Coordinate and Facilitate Health, Safety and Integrated Waste Committee meetings in line with legislative requirements and best practises.
Participate in the Major Incident Committee Meetings; provide input into the Major Incident Plans, training and drills required.
Participate and/or coordinate emergency and disaster preparedness in line with Netcare policies.
Coordination of annual employee wellbeing days/initiatives in conjunction with HR and/or the Occupational Health Nurse Practitioner.
Collate and Review monthly Occupational Health and reports to ensure timeous identification of trends and associated risks or opportunities for improvement.
Ensure appropriate maintenance of OHS & Waste records.
Waste management (Environment)
Perform duties as the designated Waste Officer for the Facility.
Advise line managers and workers on legal requirements with regards to appropriate Waste Management which include segregation, containerisation, storage, transport, and disposal of waste.
Compile the Site-Specific Waste Management plan.
Conduct and co-ordinate workplace inspections/walkthrough surveys to evaluate effectiveness of Environmental (Waste) risk controls.
Coordinate, monitor and provide support to facilities with environmental aspects and impact assessments. (Part of SHEQ Risk Management process)
Advise on sentinel and/or major environmental and waste incidents.
Coordinate the capturing and monitoring of waste volumes at facilities. Evaluate reports and identify opportunities for improvement.
Ensure appropriate maintenance of waste records.
Drive waste minimisation projects and initiatives in order to meet the zero waste to landfill goal
Radiation Safety
Co-ordinate and manage compliance with regards to Dosimeters and Radiation Safety at the facility.
Investigate radiation incidents and refer over exposure incidents for assessment by an OHNP.
Assist the responsible radiographer and licence holder of the facility by fulfilling the duties of the Radiation Safety Officer.
Coordinate and Manage administration relating to Individual Equipment Records with the applicable line manager, responsible radiographer, and physicist.
Co-ordinate and participate in Radiation Protection committee Meetings.
Quality Management, Reviews & Auditing
Ensure that there is a written quality insurance programme for infection control after a base line survey and that evaluation and remedial measure are in place.
Co-ordinate