Illinois Administrative Code
Title 77 - PUBLIC HEALTH
Part 251 - UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS HOSPITAL INFECTION CONTROL CODE
Section 251.300 - Infection Control
Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 12, March 22, 2024
a) The hospital shall designate a person or persons as Infection Prevention and Control Professionals to develop and implement policies governing control of infections and communicable diseases. The Infection Prevention and Control Professionals shall be qualified through education, training, experience, and/or certification, and the qualifications shall be documented.
b) A multidisciplinary Infection Control Committee, composed at least of members of the medical staff and nursing staff, the Infection Prevention and Control Professionals, and the supervisor of Central Sterile Supply and the hospital administration, shall be responsible for investigations and recommendations for the prevention and control of infections within the hospital. This Committee shall perform an annual facility-wide infection control risk assessment. (Section 7 of the Act)
c) Policies and procedures for reporting cases of communicable diseases and for the care of patients with communicable diseases shall be in accordance with the Control of Communicable Diseases Code, the Control of Sexually Transmissible Diseases Code and the Control of Tuberculosis Code.
d) When patients having a communicable disease, or presenting signs and symptoms suggestive of such diagnosis, are admitted, proper precautionary measures shall be taken to avoid cross-infection to hospital personnel, other patients, or the public.
e) The hospital shall provide facilities and equipment for the isolation of known or suspected cases of infectious disease.
f) Policies and procedures for handling infectious cases shall include orders for nursing and non-professional staffs providing for proper isolation technique.
g) All persons who care for patients with or suspected of having a communicable disease, or whose work brings them in contact with materials that are potential conveyors of communicable disease, shall take appropriate safeguards to avoid transmission of the disease agent.
h) The hospital shall develop and implement comprehensive interventions to prevent and control multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and certain gram-negative bacilli (GNB), that take into consideration guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the management of MDROs in healthcare settings, including the "2007 Guideline for Isolation Precautions: Preventing Transmission of Infectious Agents in Healthcare Settings" and "Guidelines for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings". (Section 7 of the Act)
i) The hospital shall comply with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publication "Guidelines for Infection Control in Health Care Personnel".
j) The multidisciplinary Infection Control Committee shall be responsible for developing, implementing, monitoring, and enforcing a hand hygiene program in the hospital. For the purposes of this Part, "hand hygiene" is a general term that applies to hand washing with plain soap and water; antiseptic hand wash using soap containing antiseptic agents and water; antiseptic hand rub using a waterless antiseptic product, most often alcohol based, rubbed on the surface of the hands; or surgical hand antiseptic.
k) Contaminated material shall be handled and disposed of in a manner designed to prevent the transmission of the infectious agent.
l) Thorough hand hygiene shall be required after touching any contaminated or infected material.
m) The hospital shall establish a systematic plan of checking and recording cases of infection, known or suspected, that develop in the institution; these cases shall be reported to the Infection Control Committee and hospital administration. The Committee shall be empowered and directed to investigate health care-associated infections to determine the causative organism and its possible sources. The findings and recommendations of the Infection Control Committee shall be reported to the medical staff and administration for corrective action.
n) Policies and procedures related to this Section and to the following items shall be developed:
o) In order to improve the prevention of hospital-associated bloodstream infections due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureaus (MRSA) and pursuant to Section 2310-312 of the Department of Public Health Powers and Duties Law of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois, the hospital shall establish an MRSA control program that requires: