The Infection Control Estimate: Outbreak Management Tool
This project will evaluate the implementation of a new digital tool (Infection Control Estimate – ICE) for managing outbreaks of communicable disease in hospital settings. The ICE tool is both a cognitive aid and a data repository for supporting the management of outbreaks. It prompts the users to input data related to key aspects of management such as case definitions and outbreak objectives in addition to providing a data store / documentation of outbreaks interventions implemented and their evaluation which can serve as a rich source of data, which can later be analysed to understand the efficacy of outbreak management interventions. Two studies will be conducted, one quantitative and one mixed methods to allow insight into both the system and technical impacts of the ICE in practice.
Specialists in infection control who tested the minimum viable product for this tool had the following to say about the tool:
“The Northern Care Alliance is delighted to have been part of the collaborative work with the ICE project team at the University of Salford. This tool has the potential to bring rapid resolution to outbreaks of infectious diseases, support clinical teams to effectively introduce proven control methods, and ultimately help to keep our patients safe.”
Linda Swanson, Director of Nursing Infection Control for the NCA
“Although it has been a huge task, I am excited that we have created something that can be so easily applied and makes outbreaks and the learnings from them so visual. We believe that having this visual representation of an outbreak will reach our audience and staff more efficiently and effectively. It also saves time as everything is included in one document.”
Sandra Brady, Infection Prevention and Control Specialist
Outputs: