Fikes Infection Control, Inc. Preparedness - COVID-19
Fikes has taken the following precautions to fully prepare for COVID-19 based on CDC recommendations and publications.
Both the checklist and strategies are posted at each of our offices.
What is Fikes Infection Control doing to prevent the spread of COVID-19
and other respiratory illnesses?
- Fikes currently has in place protocols to prevent the spread of any disease, especially COVID-19.
- Fikes is monitoring its workforce for signs and symptoms of respiratory illness, including COVID-19. In truth, many of these policies have already been in place for Fikes. We deal with infectious material during our normal workday. We are hired to prevent the spread of infections. We must monitor our staff to ensure our customer that we are hypersensitive to the safety of their immunosuppressed clientele.
- Employees, including office staff are being tested daily for fever. Supervisors (in PPE including a mask and gloves) are using thermometers to test each employee’s temperature as they enter the office. This data is recorded for each employee and then compared daily for changes. Even changes within the norm are scrutinized. Any temperature over 99 degrees is met with immediate action. A second and third temperature are taken to verify. Once a temperature over 99 has been confirmed, the employee is required to leave the office. The employee will then self-quarantine until they can be tested. Once the employee has left the office, the area is disinfected while the supervisor properly disposes their PPE.
- Each employee has been trained to watch for any symptoms and/or signs that they may have contracted COVID-19. If they observe any symptom, no matter how minute they have been educated to contact their supervisor via phone and report their symptoms. Once reported, the employee is asked to self-quarantine until it can be ascertained whether or not they have been infected with COVID-19 or other illnesses.
- If ANY symptoms are observed at the workplace, the employee is asked to self-quarantine until they can be tested. Any members of our staff that have had contact with this employee are asked to be on high alert concerning any signs or symptoms of their own.
Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE)
Please see our list of personal protective equipment we use daily. If there is additional PPE you require, we would be more than happy to integrate it into our program.
- Changed immediately if a snag or hole is observed.
- Based on our work load we wear 6mil thickness for durability.
- Some of our kitchen work requires heavy duty rubber gloves to protect our employees from cuts.
- Includes face shields, goggles, and glasses
- All options are available to our employees. Certain types work better for particular jobs.
- Eye protection used on a job is disinfected at the end of the night.
- Boots rated to be waterproof. Many of our jobs are processed in a wet environment. Our employees need dry feet for their health and safety.
- In certain applications, we can utilize work boots and cover them with shoe covers. The shoe covers can be disposed of after our service to ensure we are not carrying any infectious material away from a job.
- Again, our employee’s health is protected by keeping chemical solutions and water away from the skin.
- Currently, all employees are mandated to remove all work clothes at the end of each work night so the clothes can be run through a sanitizing wash cycle.
- Fikes utilizes a wet suit for employees using our high-pressure systems. This prevents blowback from getting on their clothes.
- Each wash suit is disinfected after each job.
Chemicals
If you decide to employ our ERT team, there will be additional chemicals that I can send you information on (mostly different types of disinfectants to combat different infectious materials).
Quaternary ammonium compounds are potent disinfectant chemicals designed to kill germs. It is often the solution that allows a product to claim to be antibacterial, as they are certified by the EPA as pesticides. Quat has excellent wide spectrum germ kill ability and a film forming residual, while exhibiting low toxicity and corrosivity.
Degreaser
Acid based cleaner
Caustic Acid based solution utilized on vent hood filters and the shaft where grease and grime has been baked on.
Enzymatic solution utilized in drains to eat away grease and grime, removing a favorite place for gnats and other pests to lay their young.
Coordination with Each Facilities' Staff
Our staff is ready and willing to go through any screening process you require. They will have already been through our process at our office and understand this is necessary to our work and to helping prevent the spread of COVID-19.
We start our work when most if not all patients have gone to their room for the night. As mentioned, our staff will NEVER enter a patient’s room for ANY reason. We will coordinate with your staff to get equipment in/out as quickly as possible. In the event you have a night roamer (patient that likes to roam the halls at night), our staff is fully trained to keep our distance and even leave the area if necessary.
We will coordinate with your staff to accomplish this type of cleaning. Common areas are processed in the morning hours between midnight and 5am. We will set up barriers, so patients cannot come into the common areas while we are cleaning/disinfecting them. Your staff will know exactly where we are so they can prevent patients from entering the area as well. Once again, our employees will know to leave the area (in a safe condition) while getting one of the facility’s staff to help get the patient back to their room.
The kitchen is a relatively easy area to cordon off from the patients. But if a patient happens into this area, we will react accordingly keeping our distance and notifying the facility staff.
Social Distancing
- At this time, social distancing has become necessary with the CDC recommending people stay at least 6 feet apart to reduce the likely hood of COVID-19 spreading. We already have had several in-service meetings to train all our employees on the importance of keeping six feet away from the residents in a nursing facility. We not only train them, we teach them the reasoning behind the safety precaution.
- The bulk of our work is accomplished at night after residents have gone to bed. Our staff has been trained to NEVER enter a patient’s room for ANY reason. If a resident is encountered, our staff is trained to stay the minimum required distance (6 feet) at all times. We will be moving equipment; so, there will be no reason for our employees to loiter. Supervisors will ensure that all our staff are moving quickly (and safely) through the building.
- We also perform work in areas such as the kitchen that keep our employees away from the residents.