Communicable Disease Surveillance Specialist High Risk Populations
Current-Lead the surveillance and response activities for health department case investigations and outbreak response of Extensively Drug Resistant Organisms (XDRO's), Multidrug Resistant Organisms (MDRO's) and Emerging Pathogens in Evanston Acute Care Hospitals (ACH's), Long Term Care Facilities (LTCF's) and Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF's) based on Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), Council for Outbreak Response: Healthcare Associated Infections and and Antibiotic Resistant Pathogens (CORHA), Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), Society for Healthcare Epidemiology (SHEA) and Association of Professionals in Infection Control (APIC) guidelines-Conduct infection control and prevention activities, including but not limited to:>Conduct active and passive surveillance of Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAI's) including XDRO's and MDRO's >Provide up-to-date, evidence-based interventions to direct infection control action steps in response to the identification of XDRO's and MDRO's -Conduct Infection Control Assessment and Response (ICAR) evaluations -Conduct Point Prevalence Survey's (PPS's) in partnership with IDPH and the Wisconsin Antibiotic Resistance Laboratory Network (ARLN)-Communicate Health Advisories about reportable communicable diseases, including XDRO's and MDRO's, that are active in the region in order to enhance facilities situational awareness and support infection control surveillance and response activities -Provide XDRO and MDRO-focused toolkits, resource and guideline updates, and webinar information to ensure facilities have the most up-to-date information to integrate into their infection prevention and control plans-Track XDRO and MDRO incidence and prevalence data to monitor for emerging pathogens, detect clusters, and identify outbreaks and inform infection control response activities
