Phenelle Segal, RN, CIC, founder and president of Infection Control Consulting Services (ICCS), recently presented a webinar for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) on "The Updated Infection Control Surveyor Worksheet for ASCs—What You Need to Know" for the ASC Association (ASCA).  

The Ambulatory Surgical Center Infection Control Surveyor Worksheet (ICSW) is used by federal and state surveyors to determine infection control Conditions for Coverage (CfC) compliance. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its first update to ICSW since 2013 in June 2015. Note: To access an ICCS special report about the revised ICSW, click here.

Part of Phenelle's presentation for ASCA focused on the importance — and often the need as per the regulations and standards of CMS and accreditation agencies — for ASCs to complete an infection control risk assessment. Phenelle also discussed the tie in between an infection prevention and control goals and objectives plan and the risk assessment. 

Following the webinar, Phenelle was contacted by a number of participants requesting resources that would assist with their efforts to meet infection prevention and control requirements and implement best practices.

Phenelle shared the following two documents which she uses as a template when developing facility-specific infection prevention plans and is making them available to the entire ASC community:

• Sample ASC infection control risk assessment developed by GOJO, which includes a form to assist with risk analysis and prioritization developed by ICCS
• Sample infection prevention and control goals and objectives document developed by ICCS

She encourages ASCs to download these tools by clicking on their names above and adapt them for use in their facility. Each facility has different needs and, therefore, these forms should serve as a guide. Anyone with questions about the tools or the infection prevention and infection control services ICCS provides to surgery centers across the country can contact ICCS by clicking here.