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Concurrent Education Session - 60 minutes

Environment of Care

Toolbox Talk—adapting Kamishibai Cards (K-Cards) for Construction and Renovation

Tuesday, June 17, 2025
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM MST
Location: North Room 129
CE: 1

    Presenter(s)

  • CQ

    Christopher Quigley, MPH, CIC

    Infection Preventionist
    Boston Children's Hospital
    Boston, Massachusetts

    Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

    • Co-Presenter(s)

  • MM

    Mark MacIsaac

    Construction Safety Officer
    Boston Children's Hospital
    Boston, Massachusetts

    Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

    • Moderator(s)

  • Beth Christy, MT, MSHA CIC

    Manager, Infection Control and Prevention
    Baptist Health Louisville
    Louisville, Kentucky

    Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

Session Description: Dust and debris generated from construction and renovation activities place patients, particularly immunocompromised patients, at an increased risk for invasive fungal infections (IFI). Measures taken during construction and renovation to mitigate the release of dust/debris into the patient care environment are paramount to infection prevention and control (IPC) practices, including IFI prevention. The Infection Control Risk Assessment (ICRA) determines these collective IPC-related dust/debris mitigation measures to be implemented based on project scale and patient vulnerability.

In 2022, The American Society for Health Care Engineering of the American Hospital Association published updates to the ICRA (ICRA 2.0). Given increasing volume of active construction projects in or near active patient care areas (an average of 60 active sites per day) at our facility, we decided to implement ICRA 2.0.

In order to measure initial reliability of ICRA 2.0 and sustain best practices, we developed Kamishibai cards (K-Cards) for construction and renovation. K-Cards are a tool that provide scripting for a short interaction between staff and individuals performing audits. They provide a standardized approach, minimizing the differences between auditors in individual preference, style or attention to detail.

We developed construction K-Cards to focus on practices and procedures surrounding dust control. Participants will learn how a pediatric facility undergoing extensive renovation projects used K-Cards to actively assess contractor knowledge of dust/debris mitigation measures. This improved the reliability of construction personnel adhering to ICRA requirements, highlighting the need for infection preventionists to be actively involved in construction and renovation.

This session will provide an overview of our construction process, IPC’s involvement and collaboration with other safety professionals in relation to construction and renovation, and the K-card process, which will include content, audit process, and use of of data for decision making.

Learning Objectives:

  • Upon completion, participants will conduct audits on contractors complying with ICRA requirements and best practices during construction and renovation.
  • Upon completion, participants will provide real time education to contractors on the importance of dust/debris mitigation strategies in the healthcare setting.
  • Upon completion, participants are equipped with tools to identify opportunities in relation to construction and renovation activities at their own facilities.