Infection Control Standards for Adult Care Homes: Final Standards

INFECTION CONTROL STANDARDS FOR ADULT CARE HOMES: FINAL STANDARDS

ANNEX C: GLOSSARY

Assessment The process of measuring the quality of an activity, service or organisation.

Audit An audit is any thorough examination or check . An audit should be a systematic review of the procedures used for diagnosis, care, and treatment, examining how associated resources are used and investigating the effect care has on the outcome and quality of life for the service user. "The commonest approach to audit is to set standards, measure current performance against those standards, identify shortfalls, and institute any necessary action" (Thomson, T. 1993)

Blood Borne Infections Infections transmitted via blood and other body fluids or materials e.g. needles which become contaminated with them. Examples of blood borne Infections include Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C

Care Commission - Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care. From 1 April 2002 the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care (the Care Commission), became responsible for the regulation of care services. The Care Commission regulates against the requirements of the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 and its associated Regulations and taking account of National Care Standards issued by Scottish Ministers.

Cleaning A process, which physically removes contamination but does not necessarily destroy microorganisms. Current routines do not typically quantify the reduction of microbial contamination, which depends upon many factors, including the efficiency of the cleaning process. Cleaning removes micro-organisms and the organic material on which they thrive. It is a necessary pre-requisite of effective disinfection or sterilisation.

Clinical Standards Board Scotland (CSBS) A statutory body, established as a special Health Board in April 1999. Its role, in line with the Scottish Executive's commitment to quality, openness and public accountability, is to promote public confidence that the services provided by the NHS are safe and that they meet nationally agreed Standards, and to demonstrate that, within the resources available, the NHS is delivering the highest possible Standards of care. Abbreviated as CSBS. Since January 2003 CSBS became part of NHSQIS (NHS Quality Improvement Scotland)

Clostridium difficile A bacteria which can cause diarrhoeal illness. It is commonly associated with and triggered by antibiotic use.

Criteria Criteria provide the more detailed and practical information on how to achieve the standard and can be described as structure, process and outcome criteria.

Decontamination A process which removes or destroys contamination and thereby prevents micro-organisms or other contaminants reaching a susceptible site in sufficient quantities to initiate infection or any other harmful response. Three processes of decontamination are commonly used; cleaning, disinfection and sterilisation.

Disinfection A process used to reduce the number of viable micro-organisms but which may not necessarily inactivate some microbial agents, such as certain viruses and bacterial spores. Disinfection may not achieve the same reduction in microbial contamination levels as sterilisation.

EPIC A Department of Health nurse-led multidisciplinary initiative based within the Wolfson Institute of Health Sciences at Thames Valley University, London.

Governance A framework through which services are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high Standards of care by creating an environment in which excellence in care will flourish.

Guidelines Systematically developed statements which assist in decision-making about appropriate actions.

Hand hygiene Hand hygiene is a term used to encompass all methods of hand decontamination. It includes hand washing using water and soap or a detergent based cleanser, with or without antimicrobial activity, or an alcohol based hand disinfectant.

HDL Health Department Letter (formerly known as Management Executive Letters - MELs), formal communications from the Scottish Executive Health Department to NHSScotland.

Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) Infection acquired in the hospital or other healthcare setting.

Incidents An event or set of circumstances which could lead to an outbreak or have potentially serious implications for an individual's health - for example, a high risk situation (e.g. residents served with unsafe food) or a single case of dangerous infection (e.g. E.coli O157 or tuberculosis).

Infection Control Key Worker(s) person(s) with day to day responsibility for Infection Control.

Legionella The bacterium which causes legionnaires' disease, a pneumonia which is caught by inhaling contaminated water (e.g. from taking a shower). It is never spread person-to person. One case would represent a serious incident.

Mandatory (guidance) Compulsory (guidance) but not required by law.

Medical devices Any healthcare (for example medical/ dental/chiropody) product, excluding drugs, which is used for a patient in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention or alleviation of illness or injury.

MEL Management Executive Letter (now known as Health Department Letters - HDL), formal communications from the Scottish Executive Health Department to NHSScotland.

Monitoring The systematic process of collecting information on clinical and non-clinical performance. Monitoring may be intermittent or continuous. It may also be undertaken in relation to specific incidents of concern or to check key performance areas.

MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) A bacterium commonly found on the skin of healthy people. Some of these bacteria have developed resistance to antibiotics. These resistant bacteria are called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

NHSQIS The role of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) is to improve the quality of healthcare across Scotland. Set up on 1 January 2003, NHS QIS brought together the skill and experience of five organisations which, until then, focused on various aspects of this field. These were: Clinical Resource and Audit Group (CRAG), Clinical Standards Board for Scotland (CSBS), Health Technology Board for Scotland (HTBS), Nursing and Midwifery Practice Development Unit (NMPDU) and the Scottish Health Advisory Service (SHAS).

NHSScotland The National Health Service in Scotland.

Outbreaks Two or more cases of infection or disease likely to be due to infection in residents and/or staff which are, or could potentially be, linked by common factors such as close timing, physical proximity, or exposure to the same risk (e.g. contaminated food, dressing of wounds).

Rationale Scientific/objective reason for taking specific action.

Registered Service provider is an individual or service providing a care service that requires to be registered and regulated under the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001; they may be:

a) An individual private provider.
b) A body corporate
c) A firm.
d) An unincorporated association.

Remit Area of authority

Risk The chance of something happening that will have an impact (good or bad) upon objectives. Risk is measured in terms of its consequences and likelihood.

Risk management A systematic approach to the management of risk, staff and patient/client/user safety, to reducing loss of life, financial loss, loss of staff availability, loss of availability of buildings or equipment, or loss of reputation.

SCIEH Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health.

SEHD Scottish Executive Health Department.

Self-assessment Assessment of performance against Standards by those providing the service to which the Standards are related.

Stakeholders Those people and services who may affect, be affected by or perceive themselves to be affected by a decision or activity.

Standard Required level of quality.

Standard statement An overall statement of desired performance.

Statutory Enacted by statute; depending on statute for its authority as a statutory provision. Required by law.

Sterilisation A process used to render an object free from viable micro-organisms including viruses and bacterial spores

Specification A detailed description of the criteria of the standard