Infection Prevention & Control

The Infection Prevention and Control Program at the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group is based on evidence based practices and procedures. It involves many aspects of keeping patients, staff and visitors safe including surveillance for infectious diseases, hand hygiene, education, communication, and monitoring outbreaks. We strive to prevent and reduce the spread of infections between health care workers, patients, and visitors.

In May 2008, the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care announced that all funded hospitals in the province were being provided an opportunity to join in public reporting of a number of patient safety indicators. The rates of C difficile are the first of the eight indicators that were selected for this initiative. Further information on the public reporting plan can be found on the Ministry of Health and Long Term care website at www.ontario.ca/patientsafety

“The new reporting framework reflects our commitment to uphold the highest standards of care for Ontario’s patients,” said George Smitherman, preceding Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Long-Term. “Transparency may not always provide us with the news we want to hear but it leads to the actions we all need to take to combat the risks of infection.”

“This is very important – we need to let the public know how our hospitals are performing,” said Dr. Michael Baker, Executive Lead, Patient Safety, Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. “We can then measure our progress in improving safety standards. This announcement on reporting places us among the leaders of patient safety in hospitals across the country.”

At the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre (ROMHC), Brockville Mental Health Centre (BMHC) and in our region, the rate of C difficile infection is low, but we recognize that there always remains work to be done to make sure that no preventable infection occurs in our patients. Patient Safety is a priority at our centres. Hospital-acquired infections do sometimes occur, but we are constantly striving to identify risks to our patients and ensure our staff have all the tools they need to avoid infection in their patients. Our Infection Control staff are active in programs to improve hand hygiene and to provide education to staff, visitors and patients. To make sure we keep track of infections and to ensure our rates of infection stay low, we have a program to monitor infection rates. Our ultimate goal is to keep our patients safe, and provide excellent care to all who need our services.

For more information, please email at: infectionprevention@rohcg.on.ca