Your IPAC Manual Has Never Had a Patient Waiting
Picture a Tuesday afternoon in a busy dental clinic.
The morning emergency appointment has caught up with the rest of the day. Lunch was shorter than planned. The next patient is waiting, and someone asks, “How soon can we have that room?”
Nobody has come to work intending to skip an infection prevention step. Everyone wants to do a good job. Everyone would also quite like to leave on time.
Meanwhile, the IPAC manual is having a perfectly calm afternoon on the shelf.
It has no waiting room to manage. It has never covered for a colleague or tried to find the right instructions while three people ask it questions.
Your team has.
That is where the most useful conversation about infection prevention and control (IPAC) begins: what happens when the written process meets the working day?
“We know what to do” is the beginning of the conversation
A team can know a procedure and still struggle to carry it out consistently.
Take room turnover. A staff member may understand that a disinfectant needs its specified wet contact time. But if the next patient is already being brought through, knowing the requirement does not remove the pressure to hurry. The product’s instructions still determine the required contact time.[1]
Before arranging another education session, ask what is happening around that task.
Is enough time built into the schedule? Are supplies within reach? Has someone clearly communicated when the room will be ready? Does the person doing the work feel able to say, “I need more time to finish this safely”?
The answers give you somewhere useful to start. They may lead to coaching, a different turnover sequence, clearer communication or a change in scheduling.
A reminder can reinforce a step. A practical change can make that step possible.
Listen for “Ask her—she knows”
Every clinic has people who keep the day moving. They know which drawer holds the spare supplies, where to find the instructions and what to do when something looks wrong.
That experience is valuable. It also deserves a backup plan.
Imagine that person is away tomorrow. Can the colleague covering reprocessing find the correct instructions for an unfamiliar instrument? Can they explain the process and show how they would carry it out? Would they know who to contact if they were unsure?
When the answer is “Ask her—she knows,” you have found an opportunity to turn one person’s knowledge into something the team can rely on.
Start with the tasks that depend most heavily on that person. Make the instructions easy to find, provide training for the person covering and check that they can do the work. Public Health Ontario’s reprocessing checklist includes competency assessment and maintaining training records.[2]
Give your experienced people credit for what they know, and give them the comfort of knowing the process can run safely when they take a day off.
Give “yes” a follow-up question
“Do you have an IPAC manual?”
“Yes.”
Good. Now ask: “When did it last help someone make a decision?”
“Are the manufacturer’s instructions available?”
“Yes.”
Good. Now ask: “Can the person using this equipment find the right instructions without a scavenger hunt?”
Those follow-up questions connect paperwork to the work. They also give your team a chance to explain the awkward parts of a process that can look straightforward on paper.
Try a different question at your next huddle
Ask: “Which IPAC task becomes hardest to do properly when we’re running behind?”
Then give people room to answer. Resist jumping straight to a reminder about what the policy says.
Choose one task. Walk through it with the people who do it. Compare the actual steps with the applicable requirements and manufacturer’s instructions. Find out where the pressure, uncertainty or delay appears.
Agree on a change, give someone responsibility for it and come back to see whether it helped. Address an immediate safety concern as soon as you identify it.
The aim is to leave the conversation with a fix the team can use tomorrow.
Make the manual earn its place
A well-written IPAC manual matters. Its value grows when staff can use it to answer a question, carry out a task or recognize when they need help.
Your team deserves that kind of support, especially at 2:15 on a Tuesday.
If this sounds familiar, IPAC Consulting can help you take a closer look at how your clinic works through a General Office Assessment—and turn what you find into practical next steps.
Final Thoughts
A well-written IPAC manual gives your dental clinic a foundation. What matters next is how that foundation supports the team when appointments run late, a colleague is away and the next patient is waiting.
Making infection prevention part of everyday practice means looking closely at the conditions in which people work:
- Make time for the required steps. Review whether scheduling and room turnover allow staff to follow the process properly, even when the day falls behind.
- Put instructions within reach. Staff should be able to find the right guidance when they need it, without a scavenger hunt.
- Give experience a backup plan. Turn individual knowledge into clear instructions, training and demonstrated competency so the team can work safely when an experienced colleague is away.
- Make it easier to speak up. Staff need to feel supported when they ask for help or say they need more time to finish a task safely.
- Follow through on practical changes. Choose a difficult task, understand what gets in the way, assign responsibility for a fix and check whether it helped.
At your next huddle, start with one question: “Which IPAC task becomes hardest to do properly when we’re running behind?”
The answer may tell you more about where to begin than another reminder to read the manual.
Your IPAC manual has never had a patient waiting. Your team has. Give them the time, tools and support to put it into practice.
References
[1] RCDSO. Standard of Practice: Infection Prevention and Control in the Dental Office, pp. 27–28. https://cdn.agilitycms.com/rcdso/pdf/ipac/RCDSO_5539_Standard%20of%20Practice_Infection%20Prevention%20and%20Control_v3_ACC.pdf
[2] Public Health Ontario. IPAC Checklist for Dental Practice: Reprocessing of Dental/Medical Equipment/Devices, July 2019, section 9. https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/C/2019/checklist-ipac-dental-reprocessing.pdf?la=en