IPC Update

Jan. 8, 2021 | Health, Safety & Environment Coordinator

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Dear Staff, Faculty and Students,

REQUIRED! UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA RETURNING TO CAMPUS - COVID-19 COURSE

As referenced in the January 6 Employees Digest email, staff, faculty and students who are required to return to campus during the Winter 2021 semester must first complete the online course Returning to Campus - COVID-19 and forward the completion certificate to their supervisor. The course takes approximately 10 minutes to complete and outlines public health measures and other university requirements for returning to campus safely.

A short refresher version is also available for those who previously completed the full course in 2020. 

**Remember that in the department of Dentistry absence reporting, screening/testing procedures and required isolation/quarantine timelines differ from other non-patient care departments and faculties. 

Should you experience symptoms, have been exposed or are positive for COVID-19 your first point of contact is the IPC Team. Contact information for both Dr. Altabtbaei and Ronna are at the bottom of this update.**

PATIENT COVID-19 SCREENING

The following four steps should be completed for patient COVID-19 screening:

• • Seat your patient - instruct them to keep their mask in place until told to remove it.

  • Complete the COVID-19 screening and document the answers before you do anything else

  • Measure and document the patient's vital signs (blood pressure, pulse, respirations, temperature & if the patient is a diabetic, their blood glucose)

  • Give the patient preprocedural mouth rinse, instruct them to take their mask off to use the rinse and then have them put their mask back in place when finished rinsing and spitting. They will then take the mask off again when laid back in the chair and care is about to begin. When care is finished the patient must put their mask back on immediately upon finishing dental care before they are sat up again.

CHANGE TO PREPROCEDURAL MOUTH RINSE 

Due to recent published evidence, we are changing the type of preprocedural mouth rinse we use for patient care. We will be having the patient rinse for 30 seconds with Listerine mouth rinse prior to all dental care except for surgical procedures. We will still use chlorhexidine gluconate mouth rinse prior to all surgical procedures.

Have IPC Questions, Concerns or Positive Comments? Email dentIPC@ualberta.ca.

Sincerely,
Dr. Khaled Altabtbaei, IPC Officer
Ronna Richardson-Lozano, IPC Coordinator