Contagious Disease

County Seat Animal Hospital will utilize the following protocol to reduce the spread of infectious disease both within and from its facility.

Personal Hygiene

Hand washing will be practiced by all practice team members after handling every patient before moving to the next or starting administrative or client service tasks. Practice team members are expected to wash hands following use of the restroom and prior to consumption of food, beverages, or use of personal hygiene products such as lotions, chapstick, or contact lens solution. Hands should also be washed just prior to leaving the practice for the day and on your break. The soap available in the dispensers above each wash area is adequate for routine hygiene unless you are advised to the contrary.

Attire

Uniforms consisting of scrubs will be issued at hiring and must be worn while on the premises.

All uniforms must be laundered after each use at the practice regardless of length of shift.

Foot covers will be provided for any member in the surgical suite.

While in isolation areas, an additional disposable gown/gloves/mask/shoe covers/ and hat will be worn over scrubs and discarded anytime a team member leaves that area.

Footbaths

A bactericidal footbath will be placed just inside the isolation area doorway. All practice team members must dip soles of shoes immediately prior to departing this area and step onto towel provided.

Patient Care

Animal Isolation

Solid walls, stainless steel or impermeable compartments or walls between runs, able to be totally disinfected in location, flush drains in runs, room lit with overhead fluorescent lighting suitable to provide adequate light for examination, sink

Ventilated with negative airflow at appropriate rates of exchange

Equipment stored/used there:

Attachment for oxygen hose, nebulizer and associated accessories, dedicated supplies for disinfection, covered waste recepticles, footbath, fabric towels and shallow tray, bandage scissors, infusion pump, IV stand, mayo stand

Supplies stored/used there: Plastic waste bags, paper towels, cadaver bags, selection of syringes and needles, sterile lube packets, thermometer, stethoscope, cotton swabs, and tongue depresseors, IV catheters, scissors, bandaging materials, IV fluids, stainless steel bowls, cat litter/pan, disposable gloves/gown/mask/cap/shoe covers/otoscope heads, source bottles

Traffic Flow

Only exam room two will be utilized for potentially hazardous cases. If the receptionist or assistant feels that patient is potentially infectious, they shall be escorted into the room. The veterinarian will decide if the patient is to be hospitalized. From the exam room the patient will be escorted to isolation.

Potentially contagious patients coming in to the receptions area will be admitted either to exam room two or taken directly to isolation. The reception area and the path to the patient's final resting area will be cleaned and disinfected with Clorox Clean-up immediately. All areas that the patient has touched will be cleaned in this manner.

Exam rooms will be disinfected after a general cleaning is performed. This includes the entire floor be mopped with Clorox Clean-up and all surfaces wiped down with it as well. All practice team members are to wash their hands after disinfected the potential contaminated area.

Disinfection of Facility

Isolation/Exam Rooms: using Clorox Clean-up on all surfaces and mopping with a mixture of Clorox

Bleach and water. This will be done by a technician immediately following the patient's exit.

Main Hospital Areas: using Clorox Clean-up on all surfaces and mopping with a mixture of Clorox

Bleach and water: This will be done by whomever is at reception during the patient's arrival.

Equipment: using Clorox Bleach and soaked and wiped with fresh linen. This by technician.

Waste Disposal

All potentially infectious waste is placed in plastic trash bags (isolation room double bagged) before being

taken out.

Infectious waste, such as body fluids/tissues/or bodies themselves, is double bagged and taken out by the

doctor.

Client Education

Client education is the responsibility of the attending veterinarian. Only if the client specifically asked the receptionist/technician are they to give their answers. People who are not certified in the area of treatment should not give their opinions to clients.

Clients are to learn from the attending veterinarian about the potentially hazardous disease. They are to learn which are suspected, who they are contracted, any potential risks to family, signs to look for from their family, when they should see their physician, how their other pets could suffer, what the treatment will be, and what they should expect the outcome to be.

Practice Team Member Training

Who will be trained: All practice team members that are expected to provide patient care Training will be provided by practice team manager on an individual basis to ensure accuracy This training will be part of the hiring process Oversight of Contagious Disease Control Efforts.

The attending veterinarian will be responsible for oversight of all contagious disease efforts.

Contagious Disease