DPHHS is offering one-time incentive payments to recruit employees at Montana’s state-run health care facilities. For more information go to Work4DPHHS.com

Infection Control and Prevention

Infection control and prevention are the actions an individual or health care facility takes to prevent or stop the spread of germs. Infection control is an essential part of all health care services. Infection control measures can range from simple hand washing to high-level disinfection of surgical instruments. Implementing these measures can prevent transmission of disease within health care settings and the community.

The ICP/HAI Section follows the CDC core practices to guide their efforts.

The ICP/HAI Section offers Infection Control Assessment and Responses (ICARs) and outbreak consultations to all Montana health care facilities.

ICARs are used to systematically assess a health care facility’s infection control and prevention practices and guide quality improvement activities by identifying gaps and strengths of the facility’s practices. The areas covered by ICARs include IPC program and infrastructure, training, auditing, and feedback, hand hygiene (HH), transmission-based precautions (TBP), environmental services (EVS), high-level disinfection, sterilization, infection safety, point-of-care (POC) testing, wound care, health care laundry, antibiotic stewardship, and water exposure. The ICP/HAI section provides free, non-regulatory infection control assessments to all health care and congregate settings in Montana.

Each ICAR is tailored to the specific facility, with the selection of a few infection prevention and control modules that the facility identifies as areas of concern. Therefore, not every infection prevention and control area will be selected for each ICAR. After each ICAR is completed, a gap assessment is completed to help identify any areas where education and training can be developed and provided.

Health care and congregate settings in Montana have the opportunity to request one-on-one consultations with the ICP/HAI section during active outbreaks of communicable disease. Outbreak consultations help identify potential gaps in infection control and prevention practices that may be contributing to the continued transmission of communicable diseases.

Please reach out to Erika Baldry (Erika.Baldry@mt.gov) to schedule an ICAR for your facility.