Phenelle Segal, RN, CIC, FAPIC, founder and president of Infection Control Consulting Services (ICCS), will be presenting at APIC 2019, the annual event hosted by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

This year's meeting will take place June 12–14 in Philadelphia. It is expected to be the largest gathering of infection prevention professionals in the world.

Phenelle will be presenting on "Breaches in Dental Infection Prevention: Could This Be Your Practice?" on Friday, June 14, from 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM. She will be accompanied by Luci Perri.

The session's description is as follows:

This session discusses a detailed description of findings related to onsite observations at dental practices and oral surgery centers across the continuum of care. Practices were reviewed against the CDC Guidelines for Infection Control and Dental Health-Care Settings and Basic Expectations for Safe Care and current FDA and American Dental Association (ADA) guidelines. Examples of review metrics include but are not limited to cold chemical sterilization, instrument sterilization, dental unit waterlines, safe injection practices, use of PPE, operatory room turnover, and tips about table top sterilizers.

These onsite observations showed that individual practices consistently fall out of compliance, putting patients and employees at risk from the lack of effective disinfection, sterilization, and knowledge of IPC best practices.

This topic is important and much needed since the dental community, including oral surgery, is often overlooked and the risk of blood-borne pathogens from lack of effective disinfection and sterilization is of concern. This concern is well-founded as there have several documented outbreaks of hepatitis and bacterial infections in patients.

Participants will understand the various risk factors that are specific to dental practices and oral surgery centers and learn the steps necessary to remediate deficiencies. In addition, we will address a written dental IPC program and essential resources to enhance best practices.

If you are interested in arranging a meeting with Phenelle, contact ICCS.