With COVID-19 cases on the rise around Australia, now is a good time to revisit last year’s changes to Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) lead requirements and ensure your policies and procedures are up to date.
According to the Department of Health, an IPC lead is a designated member of your nursing staff who has completed an identified IPC course. The role of the IPC lead is to observe, assess and report on IPC of your aged care home and assist with developing procedures and providing advice within the home.
By requiring all aged care homes to have an IPC lead, the government hopes to increase infection prevention and control expertise across the aged care sector. This comes in response to findings in the Independent Review into the Newmarch House COVID-19 Outbreak and the COVID-19 Special Report by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Both reports noted the need for stronger leadership in infection control in aged care.
All aged care facilities must appoint a dedicated, onsite IPC lead. According to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Factsheet, the IPC lead’s role is to “observe, assess and report on infection prevention and control, and to assist with developing procedures and providing best practice advice.”
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) sets out key compliance requirements in its Guidance and resources for providers to support the Aged Care Quality Standards. In December 2020, the ACQSC updated its Guidance to incorporate the IPC lead requirements.
These are the key changes the ACQSC made to its Guidance:
Standard 3: Purpose and Scope of the Standard (p. 55) (changes indicated in green)
The organisation is expected to then have policies and procedures that support the workforce to deliver care and treatment in line with this approach.
This includes, for residential aged care services, a dedicated clinical staff member responsible to support the design, implementation and continuous improvement of infection prevention and control policies, procedures and practices.
Standard 3: Requirement 3(g) – Intent of this Requirement (p. 83)
Infection management, such as isolating infectious causes or consumers, and applying standards and precautions to prevent transmission, minimises the risk of transmission.
If community transmission starts to occur in your area, you must increase your vigilance and escalate your response, particularly around infection prevention and control.
It’s expected that organisations develop and implement an effective infection prevention and control program that is in line with national guidelines, including recommendations, advice or guidelines from the Infection Control Expert Group, which advises both the Communicable Disease Network Australia (CDNA) and the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC). It is further expected organisations will reference the Commission’s outbreak management document, Practical Guidance to support COVID-19 outbreak management planning in residential care, in development of effective infection prevention and control programs.
Infection prevention and control programs will vary in scope and complexity depending on the nature of the care and services the organisation provides.
Organisations must demonstrate infection prevention and control expertise, such as appointment of infection prevention control (IPC) lead(s), meeting (ongoing) training requirements around infection prevention and control, which should be available to all staff. Processes for routinely screening staff and visitors on entry to a residential care facility are important where there is any risk of infectious disease being introduced to the facility.
Residential aged care services are required to appoint at least one clinical staff member as infection prevention and control IPC lead(s). This ensures that these organisations are prepared to prevent and respond to infectious diseases, including coronavirus (COVID-19) and influenza. The IPC lead(s) must be a designated member of the nursing staff who has completed an identified IPC course.
Standard 3: Requirement 3(g) – Reflective Questions (p 84)
Four new Reflective Questions were added to Requirement 3(g):
Standard 3: Requirement 3(g) – Examples of Actions and Evidence (pp 85-86)
Three new Examples of Actions and Evidence were added under “Workforce and Others”:
One new Example of Actions and Evidence was added under “Organisation”:
Standard 7: Requirement 3(c) – Reflective Questions (p 159)
Four new Reflective Questions were added to Requirement 3(c):
Standard 7: Requirement 3(c) – Examples of Actions and Evidence (p 160)
One new Example of Actions and Evidence was added under “Consumers”:
Three new Examples of Actions and Evidence were added under “Workforce and others”:
Standard 8: Purpose and Scope of the Standard (p 169)
Organisations are expected to plan for, and manage internal and external emergencies and disasters and have effective infection prevention and control procedures in place.
Standard 8: Requirement 3(c) – Intent of this Requirement (p 180)
(iv) Workforce governance – including assigning clear responsibilities and accountabilities
Workforce governance systems and process make sure workforce arrangements are consistent with regulatory requirements. They also need to make sure the organisation has enough skilled and qualified members of the workforce, including a designated member of the nursing staff who has completed an identified IPC course.
Standard 8: Requirement 3(c) – Reflective Questions (p 180-181)
Six new Reflective Questions were added:
Standard 8: Requirement 3(c) – Examples of Actions and Evidence (p 182)
Two new Examples of Actions and Evidence were added under “Workforce”:
Three new Examples of Actions and Evidence were added under “Organisation”:
Do your records show that your IPC policies and procedures are contemporary and refer to best practice guidance? Can your IPC Lead describe how they meet the requirements of their role to support design, implementation and continuous improvement of infection prevention policies? Do you have evidence that your organisation was mindful of risks to individual consumers when you made your outbreak management plan?
These are just some of the actions and evidence that you now have to take into account when complying with IPC Lead requirements in the context of the Aged Care Quality Standards. Now may be the time to look over these Examples of Actions and Evidence, along with the Reflective Questions to test your readiness to deal with an outbreak and pass an ACQSC Assessment.
Further guidance resources are available on both the Department of Health and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s websites, including:
Here are some suggested support resources for your Aged Care Facility’s nominated IPC Lead: