The goals of the Infection Control program at Cibola General Hospital and Cibola Family Health Center are to allow for a systematic, coordinated, and continuous approach to improving performance, focusing on surveillance, prevention, and control of infections throughout the organization. The core concept in prevention is education. Teaching our patients, visitors, and staff members how to recognize and prevent the transmission of infection is a primary objective of the infection control program.  In addition, the hospital’s infection control nurse ensures the organization has a functioning, coordinated process in place to reduce the risks of endemic and epidemic infections in our patients, healthcare workers and our community.

The following mechanisms are utilized to achieve this objective:

• Monitoring and evaluation of key performance aspects of infection control surveillance, prevention, and management.   Continuous collection and/or screening of data to identify isolated incidents or potential infection outbreaks.
• Participating in hospital-wide educational programs in an effort to reduce and control the spread of infection
• Interfacing with public health on community issues.
• Ensuring that that the hospital meets and exceeds regulations and guidelines in order to provide that safest environment possible for our patients and staff.