Henry Schein Medical has developed a resource to help ASCs educate team members on infection prevention.
More than half of all surgical procedures today are done in an outpatient setting such as an Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC). And that volume is only projected to grow.
Yet ASC administrators typically don’t have the scope of resources that a hospital or health system does like human resources, legal, risk, materials management – even education.
In order to properly train staff on important topics, administrators have to turn to outside resources and experts. Henry Schein Medical recently created the Henry Schein RISE platform to do just that. The medical business of Henry Schein, Inc. provides resources and education on one of the most critical topics for healthcare providers – infection prevention.
Indeed, 1 in 31 U.S. patients develops a healthcare-associated infection (HAI) every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Poor adherence to an infection control program could be costly – even disastrous – for an ASC.
How it works
RISE (Resources, Infectious Prevention, Solutions and Support, and Education) was built to help ASCs educate their staff around infection prevention. Providers can log onto henryscheinRISE.com and create a free account.
Some of the features offered on the platform include:
- Latest News and Developments. Current information from the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association, Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses, CDC, and other organizations is featured on the site. For instance, if a state is experiencing a tuberculosis outbreak, that information would be posted so providers would know which cities or counties are affected.
- Specialized Guidance. Users can focus on a certain area of care for their research or training – pre-op, post-op, OR, sterile processing, facility hygiene, etc.
- Continued Education and Training. Henry Schein Medical offers access to third-party continuing education (CE). The Company has partnered with suppliers who specialize in infection prevention and have already created free CE courses. Users can click on a link that goes straight to the supplier’s CE site. They can fill out the information, and take the course, with the supplier providing the CE credits.
- Infection Prevention Information and Clinical Studies. This section includes surveys, case studies, worksheets and more.
- Featured Products. Information on products for ASCs from world-class suppliers are highlighted.
- Consult and Expert. Users can request for a Henry Schein Medical specialist or supplier to visit and discuss certain topics in-person. Users can even search for a Henry Schein Surgical Solutions Specialist by state on the website.
- Podcasts. The site also features podcasts, including Beyond Clean and First Case, which provide infection prevention-related topics from experts in the space.
“Henry Schein RISE is one way we can show our customers that Henry Schein Medical is more than a distributor,” said Erica Smith, Surgical Solutions Manager, Henry Schein. “We truly care about what goes on in our customers’ facilities,” she said. “Customers can rely on us to deliver solutions that can help them continue to deliver quality care.”
Henry Schein RISE is a very holistic approach to infection prevention, said Scott Jackson, Vice President of Surgical Solutions at Henry Schein. “If you look at the names of some of the companies already on board, they’re all top tier. One might have something for skin prep, one might have something for facility hygiene. Each one has their own specialty, and together they contribute to the entire continuum of infection prevention.”
The platform pulls all those best-in-class companies together by providing users access to their education resources. “Otherwise, the ASC would have to go to all of these different companies with different expertise levels to accomplish what Henry Schein RISE does, all available on one platform,” Jackson said.
Indeed, the more companies that Henry Schein Medical can bring into the program with their educational resources, the more impactful the program becomes. The Henry Schein RISE platform is built to eventually cover more than infection prevention. Other critical areas can be added in the future.
“We feel we’ve got a very good strong start with the companies that are part of this and what they bring,” Jackson said. “We don’t want to have a lot of overlap. But we are looking for other manufacturers that bring different areas of infection prevention expertise that complements the current portfolio of companies that contributing today.”