Long Term Care Home – Infection prevention and control (IPAC)
Infection prevention and control in clinical settings is challenging enough. What about in long-term care and retirement homes – places that are designed to have communal and open spaces?
“Good design can and should balance infection prevention and control needs with residents’ quality of life and care needs. No resident wants to see their living space transform from the feeling of home to hospital,” wrote Hsu and Trudel in a recent piece on designing the future of long-term care and retirement homes.
Environmental design could be impeding health care workers from safely completing their tasks. The team will be studying how to address the problem of workers being both cautious and efficient, while respecting the comfort and homeliness of the spaces. The study’s first phase will aim to create design and infection prevention plans for participating homes to prevent future respiratory or COVID-19 outbreaks.
Project Lead: Chantal Trudel
Funding Partner: Foundation for Health Environments Research
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