Should Infection Control Risk Assessment go beyond Healthcare Projects?
As all of us working in the Healthcare Construction environment know, Infection Control Risk Assessment (ICRA) is required by the CDC and Joint Commissioning on all construction projects to protect patients from the spread of bacteria and infectious diseases. Wouldn’t it be prudent to apply a similar form of ICRA on all projects? On Higher Education projects, for example, why not protect the employees or students working or studying in the buildings that are being renovated?
With infection control becoming more important than ever across all types of spaces, it’s a good time to reflect on how we approach our projects. By implementing procedures similar to ICRA on all projects, we can deliver significant benefits for minimal or no cost.
ICRA planning and implementation involves referencing a matrix to determine the Type of construction activities and Patient Risk Groups to determine a Class of Precautions to take during construction on healthcare projects. These precautions range from dust containment to creating anterooms (or airlocks) for construction personnel ingress & egress to the worksite. The healthcare ICRA officer will review the plan, maintain a daily checklist and issue daily work permits prior to work beginning.
In non-healthcare projects, a similar process could be implemented to help minimize the potential for spread of infectious diseases in occupied buildings. In our sustainable construction approach, Gbuild implements an Indoor Air Quality Program (IAQ) during construction on all of our projects. The plan, which we implemented over a decade ago, was loosely based on ICRA. Our IAQ program includes the following tenets:
- HVAC System Protection – seal off supply diffusers, seal duct prior to and after installation, use temp filtration media.
- Contaminant Source Control – protect stored materials, clean with vacuums & wet mops in lieu of brooms, use low or no VOC products.
- Pathway Interruption – temporary barriers, isolate activities, remotely locate pollution sources.
- Housekeeping – clean the site continuously, designate lunch & break areas outside of the work area, no tobacco use, utilize walk off & tacky mats.
- Scheduling – coordinate trades to ensure proper curing, sequencing and protection.
- Assign an IAQ manager to monitor the compliance.
These are all common sense protections that can be easily implemented with little or no additional cost and substantial benefits.
For more information feel free to reach out to Doug Gianforte (dgianforte@gbuildcm.com)
BE SAFE AND HEALTHY!