Sarah Castro, MPH, CIC
Sarah Castro, MPH, CIC is the Lead Infection Preventionist at UnityPoint Health Trinity, a regional integrated healthcare system including four full-service hospitals in Iowa and Illinois with a total of 555 licensed inpatient beds. Sarah has been an Infection Preventionist since 2018, certified since 2021, and is currently a Board Member for the Eastern Iowa APIC chapter. She has a master’s degree in public health from St. Louis University with experience in conducting, utilizing, and translating research. Using evidence to drive practice is a key characteristic of Sarah’s approach to infection prevention, as her work focuses on applying evidence in a way that is understandable and accessible for all healthcare partners. 

Brief Description
This presentation will describe how one regional healthcare system combined and operationalized the ASHE recommendations for ICRA 2.0 along with recommendations for water management during construction. The presentation will discuss the framework, tools, permits and processes developed to operationalize the combined ICRA. Real-world experiences using the new tools will be discussed, along with tips and tricks for success that were learned along the way.

Objectives

1. Identify why water management needs to be included in infection control risk assessments for construction.
2. Utilize evidence to create comprehensive infection control risk assessment (ICRA) tools that include water management risks and mitigation strategies.
3. Understand how to operationalize an ICRA process that includes water management for construction at your healthcare facility.