VILT: Mitigating Infection Risks During Construction

Speaker(s):
Gordon D. Burrill, CHC, CHFM, FASHE, CCHFM, P.Eng. 
Steve Spaanbroek, MBA, CHFM, CHC, SASHE

It is well documented that infection transmission is a real and ongoing risk that can be associated with construction activity in a health care setting. Greenfield projects, renovations and additions/tie-ins all present challenges that can put patients at risk.

This course explains how construction-related infections occur, describes related legal and regulatory issues and uses case studies to evaluate infection risk. Participants will learn how to work with health care facility clients to create effective infection risk reduction strategies during construction, and will have the opportunity to create their own infection control risk mitigation recommendations (ICRMRs).

Intended Audience

• Contractors

Learning Outcome(s):

• Illustrate how infections in health care settings may occur due to construction activity.
• Demonstrate how to assess risk for infection transmission during construction activity.
• Identify which team members should be responsible for mitigating risk during construction.
• Prepare a sample comprehensive risk mitigation plan based on a real life project that can be used to form the foundation of your next health care construction project.
• Develop mitigation strategies for construction that can prevent transmission of infections.