Mold threatens patient safety—your facility could be at risk.
Think about it: Mold is a direct cause of dangerous healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that HAIs affect 2 million patients annually, with more than 90,000 fatalities per year as a result.
When a construction crew rips out ceiling sections or tears down walls, such activities can unleash a variety of infectious materials, such as the molds Aspergillus and Stachybotrys. These infectious materials threaten patient safety and can cost you millions of dollars in lawsuits and removal processes.
We've created a resource to help you manage the problems that mold causes. Introducing the new book and CD-ROM set, Healthcare Mold Management: A Prevention, Assessment, and Remediation Training Guide.
With Healthcare Mold Management, you'll learn why mold is a concern for any healthcare facility. The only book dedicated to managing mold in healthcare facilities and offering policies and procedures for remediation, Healthcare Mold Management includes case studies and scenarios on topics such as mold exposure from construction and small maintenance projects. These are designed to give you a real-life perspective on dealing with mold in your facility.
This book and CD-ROM provide the tools to identify:
- Circumstances under which mold develops
- How mold affects immunocompromised patients
- How to prevent mold
- Strategies for mold remediation. Ensure that you're promoting a safe environment for your patients who are most at risk for infection
Meet the challenges of educating your staff and contractors about mold
Educating staff and contractors is key for any mold risk reduction and prevention program to succeed. Healthcare Mold Management gives you the tools to educate workers with varying levels of understanding about mold, using teaching methods such as lecturing, use of humor, case studies, on-site demonstrations, video learning, and learning by performing tasks.
Customizable CD-ROM with forms, policies, and a training program!
Healthcare Mold Management is more than just a book. The accompanying CD-ROM contains forms and policies from the book including a chart on the quantity of fungi required to cause health problems and the various routes of exposure for fungi, a form for preventing mold before construction, and an inspection form to check for mold in heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems. Many of these are customizable so you can tailor them to use at your facility right away.
It also contains a PowerPoint presentation that'll help you train frontline staff on the key points for mold prevention, assessment, and remediation.
Who should use this book and CD-ROM set?
- IC nurses, coordinators, and directors
- Safety officers
- Risk managers
- Hospital administrators
- Environment of Care professionals
- Facility managers
About the Authors
Mark Hodgson has more than 17 years of experience in water and air hygiene management. As Clayton Group Services' director of indoor air quality (IAQ), he provides technical and business development leadership to Clayton's IAQ practice. He has conducted risk assessments and prepared protocols for the control of Legionellosis, conducted water quality and water treatment assessments and audits, developed corporate policy and procedures documentation, created operator training programs, and taught management awareness seminars. Mr. Hodgson has also been a regulatory liaison and provided litigation support. He is familiar with current environmental, health and safety legislation, and particularly with Legionnaires' disease and associated problems.
Carol L. Shenold, RN, CIC, has more than 40 years of experience working in healthcare, including acute care and long-term care facilities. She has worked in numerous hospital departments over the years. During her 12 years as an IC professional, she managed the areas of performance improvement, utilization management, risk management, and IC. During her tenure as quality review manager at Vencor Hospital in Oklahoma City, the facility scored 100 on its JCAHO survey.
Ms. Shenold is the co-author of the 2003 HCPro book, Infection Control Trainer's Toolkit: Questions, Games, and Other Ideas for IC Awareness and JCAHO Compliance.
Book Topics at a Glance
Why mold is such a serious problem for all healthcare facilities and why it continues to be a problem.
Identification of the most common forms of mold, how they develop, and sources of mold
- What are fungi? Figure: Health effects: The quantity of fungi required to cause a health effect and the various routes of exposure for fungi.
- Background on microbial contamination
- Inspecting buildings for fungal amplification
- Interior space
- Determination of building history
How mold affects immunocompromised patients
- What is mold?
- Mold locations
- Diseases that threaten immunocompromised patients
- How mold causes problems for patients
- Where is the greatest risk?
- Who is at risk at your facility?
How to prevent mold during construction and in other situations
- Responsibilities. Figures: Inspection, prework, and moisture incident report forms.
- Training
- Preventative maintenance and inspection
- Relative pressurization checks
- Response plan following a moisture incident
- Source type of water
- Action steps for nonemergency microbial or moisture incidents
- Documentation
- Response resources
- Construction
The infection control professional's perspective on educating staff and contractors on mold
- Keep it simple
- Documentation is key
How mold fits into the infection control risk assessment (ICRA)
- Cooperation and teamwork important. Figure: ICRA matrix
- Involve infection control professionals (ICPs) in project planning
- Continuing role of the ICP
Mold remediation: Short-term and long-term solutions
How to conduct a post-remediation assessment/evaluation and sampling/data interpretation
- General information
- Source sampling
- Air sampling
- Interpreting air sampling results
- Microbial sampling protocols
- Weather conditions
- Field blanks
- Sampling for bioaerosols in hospitals. Figure: List of sampling media and recommended media types.
- Culturable airborne fungi: Discussion and limitations of sampling.
- Total fungal structures: Discussion and limitations
- Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis for fungi: Pros and cons
- Air sampling protocol
- Selection of indoor sample locations
- What constitutes an indoor control location?
- Interpretation of air sampling data
Identification of regulators that oversee standards and guidelines associated with mold. Helpful websites are included
Case studies and scenarios
Healthcare Mold Management: A Prevention, Assessment, and Remediation Training Guide offers a comprehensive look at the threat of mold in healthcare.
Save money when you purchase multiple copies! Ask your customer service representative about money-saving
discounts and bulk orders. Call toll free 800-650-6787 or e-mail
customerservice@hcpro.com.
