Clinics to Country Roads: Harmonizing Measles Prevention Across a Health System

Session Description: Over the last year, we have seen an increase in national cases and outbreaks of the measles virus across a variety of patient populations and age groups. As our health system continues to grow with over 350 clinics and eight hospital locations spread across the state from rural communities to growing metropolitan areas, an opportunity was identified by our infection prevention team to create a sustainable and reliable resource, communication escalation plans and unique workflows to assist in mitigating infection transmission risk in such a diverse environment. Through the implementation of a special pathogens stakeholder group, we were able to provide targeted support to our high-risk outpatient entry points, which included our general pediatric, family medicine, urgent care and oncology clinics as well as our departments that provide community outpatient services. This support included patient-facing posters, mitigation plans that were customizable from a template where we were able to ensure every location had an identified patient screening opportunity, designated entry points, and specifics to their clinic workflow that aligned to best practice recommendations from national organizations as well as aligned to our local health system’s transmission-based precautions policy. Additionally, we created an internal communication structure within the outpatient setting that included key stakeholders to ensure a multi-level of support for this work ranging from frontline staff to quality members. With successful implementation, we improved communication and escalation pathway regarding patient testing for a rule-out measles diagnosis, early implementation of transmission-based precautions and personal protective equipment, daily surveillance of testing status, and collaboration across multiple job roles to successfully screen and identify potentially infectious patients. Through the development of these resources, we successfully met our goal in increasing preparation for a measles outbreak and decrease the transmission risk of infections for employees, patients, and visitors while maintaining a safe environment.

Mackinnon Smith

Infection Preventionist, St. Luke's Health System

Mackinnon is an Infection Preventionist who supports the ambulatory Surgical Subspecialty and Orthopedic service lines within her organization and has specialized in the ambulatory setting for over 5 years. With a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematical Biology, and a background in public health, she is passionate about influencing staff and healthcare practices to best practice recommendations that are sustainable. As an Infection Preventionist on the Ambulatory Quality Team at the largest not-for-profit healthcare system in Idaho, Mackinnon supports a territory that includes over 320 clinics and an outpatient orthopedic surgery center. Mackinnon is additionally certified as a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt professional, which has been beneficial in leading multiple projects that focus to align the ambulatory setting to national regulatory compliance standards. When she's not working, Mackinnon enjoys exploring Idaho's mountains. rivers, and nature trails with friends and family.

Arysten Prigmore

Infection Preventionist, St. Luke’s Health System

Arysten Prigmore has been in healthcare for 5 years and in her role as an Infection Preventionist for 2 years. While serving the Ambulatory population, she has enjoyed collaborating with the Primary Care and Oncology service line clinics to create safe environments for patient care. Arysten apperciates the many opportunities working with these service lines provides her and loves being on the frontier of Ambulatory work. She is Lean Six Sigma Green Belt ceritifed and is working towards her CIC certification. In her free time, Arysten enjoys spending time with husband and daughter, hiking, and reading!

Kim Strelczyk

Consultant, Specialists in Infection Prevention & Control, LLC

Kim Strelczyk is a consultant with Specialists in Infection Prevention & Control, LLC. She has worked Infection Prevention and Control for over 30 years. She is board certified in Infection Control. Kim obtained her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of New York and her master’s degree from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth where she has also served as adjunct faculty. Kim is passionate about education and is currently serving on the APIC Education Committee. She is involved in APIC at the local level, having served as President of her own chapter in Dallas-Ft. Worth. She also served the association at the national level as a Board Director, Chair of the Education Committee, and as Liaison to the Certification Board of Infection Control. She has published more than 30 articles/abstracts on topics in Infection Prevention & Control.