Welcome to IPAC Southwestern Ontario!

Message from the President

Welcome to IPAC SWO! 

My name is Francine Paquette, 2019-2020 IPAC SWO Chapter President. 

Our chapter has a rich history of supporting approximately 130 members with geographic boundaries that spread to three LHIN regions. Our members represent all health care sectors including acute care, long term care, community care, public health as well as industry.

IPAC SWO offers face-to face meetings, webinars and educational workshops to meet the educational needs of our members. Our meetings provide a forum for networking, education and collaboration and we invite you and your colleagues to join us as a member or as a guest.

IPAC SWO is proud to offer:

• The Betty Bannerman Award of Excellence that recognizes a chapter member who has made outstanding contributions to the practice of Infection Control,
• Scholarship funding for members to attend the Annual IPAC Canada National Conference.

I welcome you to contact any member of the executive to find out what IPAC Canada has to offer.

Francine Paquette

2019-2020 IPAC SWO Chapter President

---

Quick Links

Upcoming Events

IPAC SWO News

IPAC News

 

---

Upcoming Events

NEW Call for Interest to participate or facilitate the CIC Prep Series and Community of Practice

The IPAC SWO executive, IPAC HUPIC and Team IPAC-West of Public Health Ontario would like to extend a call for interest to participate in the:

Community of Practice (CoP): In the fall of 2019, there will be a CoP for those who are interested in preparing for the CIC examination. Participants would meet (virtually) with others who have successfully attained their CIC to learn about how and why one goes about obtaining their certification in infection control and to discuss opportunities and challenges in preparing to write the exam.  We are looking for support from CIC certified individuals to offer their advice and support during these meetings. A time commitment of two 1-hour webinars is requested.  

CIC Preparatory Series: Beginning in January 2020, an 8-session webinar based series that covers content from sections of the CIC exam will be offered.  We are looking for support from IPAC Canada chapter members, who are CIC certified, to help facilitate the sessions by offering support and guidance to those preparing for the exam. Information about time commitment will be discussed with interested facilitators.  

If you are interested in either joining the Community of Practice or participating in or helping to facilitate the CIC Preparatory Series, please contact the IPAC-West office at ipacwest@oahpp.ca with your name and if you would like to be a participant or a facilitator by September 30th.  Participation is not limited to geographical location and is open to anyone who are interested in CIC certification.

NEW Webinar on the new CSA Draft Standard Z317.12: Cleaning & Disinfection of Healthcare Facilities- Thursday, August 6th

This is an opportunity to listen to and participate in a Q&A about the new CSA Standard Z317.12: Cleaning & Disinfection of Healthcare Facilities. This is open to all members and any colleagues they would like to  invite. See IPAC Canada Homepage for further details.  

Join IPAC SWO at the Boler Mountain Conference Centre on September 27th for the IPAC SWO Chapter Meeting and Education Day. Buy Tickets

Registration opens at 8:30 am. The IPAC-SWO business meeting will start at 9:00 am and the educational portion of the day will start at 9:45 am. If you plan to only participate in the educational portion of the day, please arrive at 9:30 am to register. 

The topic of the Education day will focus around  the re-emergence of Vaccine Preventable Diseases and outbreaks. We are pleased to welcome the following speakers to our education day.

Reemergence of Vaccine Preventable Diseases, Dr. Marina Salvadori , Pediatric Infectious Diaseases Physician, London Health Sciences Centre

Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness, Morbidity and Mortality, Dr. Michelle Murti, Public Health Physician, Public Health Ontario

Hepatitis A outbreak in Middlesex London... A lived expereince, Dr. Alex Summers, Middlesex London Health Unit

 

 

Note: Registration closes September 20, 2019 at noon. Refunds cannot be processed after this date, however registration transfers will be accepted.  Refunds will be for the registration fee minus administrative and Eventbrite fees. No fee will be applied to transfers.

Participants who purchase an IPAC SWO member ticket to this event will be validated against the current 2019 IPAC Canada chapter member list.  If you are unsure if you are a current member please contact ipacswochapter@gmail.com.  

Save the Date for IPAC 101 for Community Healthcare Settings: Sarnia Edition October 1, 2019

IPAC 101 in Community Healthcare Settings is being presented in Sarnia on October 1, 2019. Registration and location will be announced when available. Mark your calendars for this very informative opportunity.

Back to top

---

IPAC SWO News

IPAC SWO Chapter wins the 2019 3M Chapter Achievement Award

The 2019 3M Chapter Achievement award was awarded on May 28th at the IFIC/IPAC Canada 2019 Conjoint Conference in Quebec City to the IPAC SWO Chapter.  The award was accepted by Francine Paquette, IPAC SWO President and Cheryl Tung, IPAC SWO Past President.

The award recognizes a Chapter's achievements in promoting infection prevention and control in the health care setting across the continuum.  Congratulations to all of you who have made IPAC SWO a recognized and well respected chapter of IPAC Canada. See the IPAC SWO Chapter submission here.

 

IPAC SWO in-person Chapter Meeting and Education Day- April 12, 2019 was a Success!

Thank you to all of those who were able to attend the IPAC SWO Chapter Meeting and Education Day on April 12, 2019.  The day started with the business portion of the day which was then followed by a presentation from our guest speaker Jim Gauthier, Senior Clinical Advisor, Infection Control with Diversy Canada who presented "It Is Everyone's Job to Disinfect: It Is not Everyone's Job to Disinfect Everything".  Participants were able to see a sneak peak of the new CSA Environmental Cleaning document and provide valuable feeback to  Barry Hunt, Chairman and CEO of Class 1 inc. who facilitated  the forum. 

Throughout the session, participants were able to hear from three industry sponsors  Diversey, Optisolve and AMG Medical about their company and their products. Participants also had the opportunity to engage with additional vendors, in addition to the sponsors, namely Clorox, Prescient, Cornerstone Medical, Daniels Health, Hygie, SC Johnson and RL solutions.  We would like to thank all the vendors and sponsors for their continued support and participation at our meetings.

Presentations will be posted to the IPAC SWO Chapter Meeting page of this website with speaker permission.

IPAC 101 in Community Health Settings a Success

IPAC SWO chapter supported by Public Health Ontario offered a series of IPAC 101 in Community Health Settings workshops in London, Windsor and more recently in Ingersoll. Over the course of of three hours, participants from community health settings, dental health settings, foot care clinics and public health unites learned about IPAC requirements and best practices and how it applies to their setting. Thank you to the following IPAC SWO Chapter members who presented and facilitated these sessions: 

Kathie McGhie, Erika Vitale, Darlene Rojek, Elaine Reddick, Cheryl Tung, Cara-Lee Coghill, Francine Paquette and Eleanor Paget.

IPAC SWO featured in IPAC NEWS Fall 2018 Edition

IPAC SWO was one of two chapters highlighted in IPAC Canada's IPAC News Fall 2018 Edition.  Highlights in the article included activities associated with the Educational Workshop "Cracking the IPAC Code" and the "IPAC 101 for Clinical Office Settings" which was targeted to a non-traditional healthcare sector group.  The IPAC News Fall 2018 edition can be found in the members only section of the IPAC Canada Website.

Education Day Presentations

Did you know that you can access presentations from past education days here? Visit "IPAC SWO Chapter Meetings" on the right navigation bar to access these documents.