RN Infection Prevention Coordinator

Trinity Health•Des Moines, IA

About The Position

The Infection Prevention Coordinator leads the Infection Prevention Program in collaboration with the infectious disease physician, providing an effective infrastructure, inclusive decision-making, evidence-based practices, and leadership to achieve excellence in infection prevention and control. The role works with key stakeholders on disease surveillance, prevention, and containment, including collecting, correlating, evaluating, and validating data to identify infection patterns and trends. It implements strategies to mitigate infection risks to patients and colleagues and reports data to regulatory agencies, governing boards, quality committees, senior leadership, medical staff, directors, and improvement teams as appropriate. The Coordinator provides expert consultation and leadership across the care continuum; develops, coordinates, and implements an infection prevention program aligned with the market's strategic plan; and oversees compliance with regulatory and accreditation requirements. The position authors, monitors, and implements infection prevention policies consistent with state regulations, CMS requirements, CDC recommendations, and TJC standards. It oversees and collaborates with the infection prevention specialist and reports directly to the Manager of Quality and Safety. The role includes education, rounding, performance improvement, investigation of infection events and risks, risk mitigation for construction projects, and collaboration with clinical, quality, safety, risk management, facilities, and Employee Health teams. The Coordinator supports infection prevention across hospital and clinic settings and may oversee infection prevention at owned critical access hospitals as determined by the Manager of Quality and Safety. The position also demonstrates MercyOne (Trinity Health) Mission, Vision, Core Values, Actions, and Promise in its behaviors, practices, and decisions.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in nursing or a healthcare-related field required.
Infection Control Certification required or must be obtained within two years after requirements are met.
Minimum of five years of experience in a healthcare setting.
Minimum of two years of direct Infection Prevention, infection Control, or related infection prevention experience.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead the Infection Prevention Program in collaboration with the infectious disease physician and provide oversight and consultation in collaboration with the infection prevention specialist.
Provide expert infection prevention and control consultation to medical staff, senior leadership, and colleagues.
Develop, coordinate, and implement an infection prevention program consistent with the market's strategic plan.
Develop systems for identifying, reporting, and investigating infections and communicable diseases across markets, including clinics.
Develop systems for identifying, reporting, and investigating hand hygiene practices in hospital and clinic settings.
Collect, synthesize, interpret, prioritize, and communicate performance data to support infection prevention, hygiene, cost reduction, quality, and safety.
Use appropriate internal and external data and databases to benchmark infection prevention and clinical care practices.
Collaborate with administration, medical providers, nursing, clinical staff, and leadership to identify and evaluate opportunities to improve infection prevention.
Lead and facilitate department- and organization-level performance improvement initiatives related to infection prevention.
Refine infection prevention infrastructure in units, departments, and service lines to improve quality of care and operational efficiency.
Coordinate timely submission of data and results to regulatory bodies, quality organizations, and surveys.
Obtain feedback from providers and colleagues about barriers to safe patient care and collaborate to address them.
Oversee infection prevention and control compliance and ensure compliance with regulatory and accreditation requirements.
Author, monitor, and implement infection prevention and control policies consistent with state regulations, CMS requirements, CDC recommendations, and TJC standards.
Educate colleagues on evidence-based illness and disease prevention and control, health promotion, and safe work practices.
Round with providers, leaders, and nurses caring for patients with infections in acute care and clinic settings and make practice recommendations as needed.
Participate in interdisciplinary rounding to identify infection prevention opportunities and follow up on action plans.
Attend unit and department huddles and meetings to share infection prevention practices and infection trends.
Participate in investigations of unplanned infection events or infection risks and report findings to involved units and departments; investigations may include learning from defects or root cause analyses.
Identify potential or actual serious conditions or workplace hazards and act to prevent or resolve them.
Consult with facilities management and contractors on building projects to ensure compliance with infection prevention regulations.
Participate in nursing and medical staff meetings as appropriate.
Participate in or lead the regional infection prevention workgroup.
Oversee infection prevention in owned critical access hospitals as determined by the Manager of Quality and Safety, as applicable to the market.
Participate in new-hire education on hospital-acquired conditions, hand hygiene, and infection practices.
Participate in quality and safety meetings and collaborate with members.
Lead or support root cause analyses related to hospital-acquired infections.
Complete risk mitigation for construction projects and conduct re-inspections as appropriate.
Participate in environment of care rounds and provide follow-up education.
Collaborate with quality and safety excellence nurses and risk management on patient safety improvement efforts as appropriate.
Maintain a collaborative relationship with Employee Health leadership to reduce infection risks to associates and assist with follow-up for colleagues exposed to diagnosed or undiagnosed infections.
Perform other duties as assigned.
Demonstrate the MercyOne (Trinity Health) Mission, Vision, Core Values, Actions, and Promise in behaviors, practices, and decisions.