HAVING MY SAY
Integrated pest management: A must-have for healthcare facilities
by Ron Harrison, Entomologist, Ph.D., Director of Technical Services, Orkin LLC
Cockroaches and ants can pick up and trans- fer harmful bacteria. Cockroach droppings and cast skins can aggravate allergies and even cause asthma attacks, especially in children and sensitive individuals. Flies can spread disease-causing organisms everywhere they land — and they land frequently, leaving their traces in an abundance of places. Then there are rodents, which can also cause
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serious health problems. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), rats and mice are known to spread bacteria like salmonella and
E.coli, as well as more than 35 diseases worldwide, such as Hantavirus.
A single female bed bug, which feasts exclu- sively on blood meals, can lay up to 100 eggs in a lifetime, and hatched nymphs can become reproductive several months later. Bed bug bites can cause minor to complex skin reactions and, in some cases, psychological concerns. The stakes are high for any business when it comes to pest management, but the stakes are even higher for the healthcare fi eld. Not only can many pests spread diseases and dangerous bacteria, but patients with weakened immune systems in healthcare facilities face more of a risk of infection.
Infestations can happen anywhere Once pests are found in a healthcare facility, the news can travel — and a reputation can fall — fast. A hospital for veterans in Florida is under fi re for rodent and cockroach infestations. The story drew enough attention to where state political fi gures weighed in.
A hospital in Mississippi similarly dealt with rats and mice in the kitchen. Ambulances across the country have faced bed bug pressures. Often, pest issues can lead to legal issues. An Illinois nursing home paid $250,000 in damages to the family of a patient who had 57 maggots removed from her ear. Other lawsuits against bed bugs have led to settlements in the millions, as patients have successfully claimed negligence, breaches of implied warranties of habitability and violations of municipal health and safety codes.
A Southwest Florida hospital was also cited during an inspection this past summer for
hy is pest control a necessity in healthcare facilities? Look no further than the pests themselves.
having rats in the kitchen ceiling and no pest control policy or contract for service in place (they were also violated for an unchecked sewage leak). The story ran for several days in the local media and now the facility must suffer a lasting stain on their image and even risked losing their Medicare funding if they didn’t act fast to correct the problems. Had they committed to a prevention strategy, this blight might never have occurred. The Joint Commission, the nation’s largest and oldest accrediting healthcare organiza- tion that evaluates the effectiveness, safety and quality of healthcare facilities, takes pest infestations seriously. The Joint Commission’s quality control standards, which evaluate whether facilities follow the proper protocols to ensure the safety of staff and patients, apply to pest management programs.
Since patient safety — not to mention sat- isfaction — is a top priority, then pest man- agement is a necessity. The resulting costs of fi ghting off an infestation — as well as the cost to your reputation — can far outweigh the cost of regular pest control service.
IPM: Pest protection for healthcare facilities
However, there is good news. An Integrated Pest Management (IPM) action exists for each pest hot spot inside a healthcare facility to help guard it from pest pressures.
If you aren’t familiar with IPM — or if you
don’t have an IPM program in place at your fa- cility — now is the time to learn and reconsider. IPM is a more focused, less chemically reliant approach that is more effective than old pest control practices of a man with a spray can. IPM relies on chemical treatments only as a last result, focusing instead on proactive strategies like exclusion, facility maintenance, stringent sanitation practices and ongoing inspections to keep pests away. If chemical treatments are needed, non-volatile and least toxic formulations are used, and only in preci- sion targeted areas. As a result, IPM has become the recom- mended practice by the Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE), Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth. When it comes to implementing an IPM program at your facility, a good pest control partner can assess your pest risks, implement a custom plan to manage pests and monitor for any problems that arise.
60 October 2015 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS •
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He or she can also help establish action thresholds. Action thresholds are points at which pest populations or environmental conditions indicate that some form of action needs to be taken so facilities know when to call for help.
The importance of picking the right partner With all this in mind, it’s important to fi nd the right, licensed pest management professional who will partner with you and your staff to implement all of these tactics and help keep pest problems away. But the key word here is “partnership.”
If you are still in need of a pest management provider or are ready to start searching for a new one, keep these points in mind: • When starting your search, your industry colleagues can be a good resource. Ask them who they partner with and if the partner- ship is paying off. If your facility is part of a larger network, you may also consider talking with other managers about their pest management providers and their results — both positive and negative. Last, look into the preferred pest management provider for your facility if it is a member of one or multiple group purchasing organizations (GPOs).
• Look for a provider who can tailor an IPM program specifi cally for your facility and your needs — if a potential provider doesn’t utilize IPM and insists on traditional, out- dated tactics, you should look elsewhere.
• A pest management provider shouldn’t offer you a plan without walking through and assessing your facility fi rst, not only for any existing pests but also potential pests. In fact, pest management professionals should inspect your facility on their fi rst visit — along with every other time they service the facility — and understand the science behind pests’ behavior and how to manage them. Once you choose a pest management pro- vider, take time to meet with them and dis- cuss the roles of everyone involved. Establish benchmarks for your pest management program and set up specifi c times throughout the year to evaluate the program’s success and areas of improvement with your provider. Remember, pests can be a threat to the safety
and health of your patients. A proper pest management partnership can help keep your facility secure. HPN
HAVING MY SAY
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