Infection Preventionist

St. Joseph Health – Bryan/College Station, Navasota, Caldwell, Madisonville, TX. Since 1936, St. Joseph Health has been caring for the communities in and surrounding the Brazos Valley. We have a Level III Trauma Center, the first Joint Commission certified Primary Stroke Center, and the first accredited Chest Pain Center in the Brazos Valley. St. Joseph Health is a leader in critical care and the largest provider of cardiovascular care in the region. As an integrated healthcare system St. Joseph Health includes a comprehensive network of over 100 employed providers including primary care physicians specialists and advanced practice clinicians. The network includes more than 30 ambulatory clinics featuring primary care, Express Clinics, and imaging and diagnostic services.

As our Infection Preventionist, you will be responsible for developing, implementing, and evaluating effective infection prevention and control programs across the organization.

Every day you will conduct surveillance for healthcare-associated infections, analyze data to identify trends, and design evidence-based interventions to prevent their spread. This includes educating staff, consulting on infectious disease issues, and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and best practices.

To be successful in this role, you will demonstrate expert knowledge of infectious diseases, epidemiology, and public health principles, coupled with strong analytical skills and excellent communication abilities to influence positive changes in clinical practice and safeguard patient and staff well-being.

Collaborates with the department leader in all infection prevention related activities associated with surveillance, performance improvement, and education which are intended to ensure that the facility's patients, personnel, and visitors will be protected from transmission of diseases and infection within the facility's environment as identified in the core competency model by the Association for Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

1. Responsible for assisting the department to ensure compliance with Hospital Accreditation Standards, State and CMS regulations, and for the daily operations of the Infection Prevention Department. Identifies and implements updates to the Infection Prevention Program when new regulations and/or professional guidelines are published. Serves as the content expert in all infection prevention matters in support of clinical staff, performance improvement teams and hospital committees.
2. Performs assessments from an infection prevention perspective and recommends appropriate action within scope of responsibility to ensure safe and quality patient care. Performs, coordinates and directs the process of surveillance to identify healthcare acquired infections and other adverse outcomes to ensure safe patient care. Rounds in assigned inpatient units, outpatient areas, perioperative areas, and ancillary departments regularly and on an as needed basis for evaluating compliance with infection prevention practices, policies and regulatory agency requirements.
3. Assists the department leader with ongoing assessment and development of programs, policies and procedures, and forms to address the Infection Prevention needs of employees, volunteers, contract workers, independent contractors, physicians, registry workers, and students in accordance with the guidelines established by the regulatory agencies.
4. Oversees and monitors the clinical work of staff. Identifies competency and training needs. Coordinates and oversees training. Utilizes senior area staff to assist with training and provides clinical expertise.
5. Acquires and maintains current knowledge of infection prevention professional society guidelines, best practices and regulatory requirements as demonstrated by attending infection prevention conferences and workshops, reviewing current infection prevention literature, guidelines and national standard and networking with Health System and external Infection Prevention Specialists.

Required

• Bachelors degree with a focus on epidemiology, or
• Associates degree in a healthcare-related field and 3 years of healthcare-related work experience
• Certified in Infection Control (CIC) within 24 month of hire