Orange Valley gets Hands-On with Infection Control

“Clean Hands Save Lives!”

That was the message Orange Valley Nursing Home (OVNH) Clementi shared with other care partners at their second annual Infection Control Day on 12 October 2018.

Infection control is crucial in maintaining a clean and safe environment for residents and staff of nursing homes. At OVNH, practising greater awareness in hygiene procedures helped reduce infection cases by 21% over the past year.  

To make the learning of infection control fun and memorable, OVNH staff devised game booths for guests from AIC, KK Women’s and Children’s hospital, United Medicare Centre, Peacehaven Nursing Home, and other nursing homes.

The booths showcased different aspects of infection control, such as waste management, use of personal protective equipment, supervision of residents with multi-drug resistant organisms, and hand hygiene.

For example, at the hand hygiene booth, guests placed their hands under a UV light machine after they washed their hands. They could tell if they had cleaned their hands properly as “germ”-covered parts of their hands would glow under the light. Dr Yin Shanqing, Senior Principal Human Factors Specialist from KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, was invited to speak at the event. He shared the importance of improving infection control processes. The event ended with performances by Orange Valley’s staff.