Install Working to Minimize Healthcare-Associated Infections

Washington, DC, September 24, 2019-Install and the Carpenters International Training Fund (an organization of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America) continue to develop and perfect new Infection Control Risk Assessment (ICRA), protocols and procedures.

To demonstrate their commitment to educating infection preventionists and the construction industry on the benefits of specifying ICRA protocol during work or renovation in a healthcare environment, a mock hospital exhibit was recently held at the 2019 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1.7 million healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) occur each year in the United States, contributing to nearly 100,000 deaths. On any given day, roughly one in 25 hospital patients has a HAI, endangering lives and costing the U.S. healthcare system billions of dollars per year. 

HAIs can be caused by construction-related activity; however, most are preventable with strict adherence to tried and true protocols. As HAIs continue to affect patients, the industry has a responsibility to understand how construction-related contaminants such as dust and mold affect occupied facilities and what they can do to help prevent HAIs in the first place.