Regulations Governing Implementation and Inspection of Infection Control Measures in Long-term Care and Correction Organizations (Institutions) and Places

2017-10-16
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Article 1
This set of Regulations is formulated in accordance with the regulations of Paragraph 3, Article 33 of the Communicable Disease Control Act (hereafter referred to as the Act).
Article 2
These Regulations shall apply to:
1. General nursing homes, psychiatric nursing homes and postpartum nursing care institutions established in accordance with the Nursing Personnel Act;
2. Residential mental health rehabilitation institutions established in accordance with the Mental Health Act;
3. Long-term care institutions and caring institutions established in accordance with Senior Citizens Welfare Act or Long-term Care Services Act;
4. All-day accommodation institutions for the disabled established in accordance with the People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act;
5. Baby care centers, placement and education institutes established in accordance with The Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act;
6. Veterans homes established in accordance with The ROC Veterans Assistance Act;
7. Correction organizations under the Ministry of Justice; and
8. Other organizations (institutions) or places announced by the central competent authority.
Article 3
Establishments to which the preceding article applies (hereafter referred to as "organizations (institutions) and places") shall draw up an infection control plan and examine and update the plan at least once every year.
The infection control plan in the preceding paragraph shall include the following particulars:
1. Organizational structure and duties and responsibilities of infection control related personnel;
2. Training, health education and promotion of infection control and communicable diseases;
3. Standard operating procedures for prevention, monitoring, reporting, investigation and handling of communicable diseases, cluster infection and health care related infection;
4. Management and infection control measures for employees, service recipients and visitors;
5. Standard operating procedures for care service infection control and cleaning and disinfection of care facility environment, facilities and equipment;
6. Establishment of hand washing facilities, stockpile of protective gears and management measures therefor; and
7. Other infection control measures deemed necessary by the competent authority based on the nature of the organization (institution) or place.
Article 4
An organization (institution) or place shall assign a dedicated infection control officer (hereafter referred to as "dedicated officer") to take charge of promoting the infection control operation of the organization (institution) or place in accordance with the infection control plan mentioned in the preceding article, calling relevant meetings regularly and keeping related records for future reference.
The dedicated officer shall be a full-time staff within the establishment and meet one of the following qualification requirements:
1. Having graduated from a junior college or higher with a degree in medicine, nursing, public health, rehabilitation or other related fields and having taken at least 20 hours of classes in infection control or having had at least one year of work experience in infection control.
2. Having graduated from a junior college or higher with a degree in a field other than any of the fields mentioned in the preceding subparagraph, having taken at least 20 hours of classes in infection control and having had at least one year of work experience in infection control.
3. Having graduated from the nursing or the obstetric nursing department of a senior vocational school (prior to education reform), having taken at least 20 hours of classes in infection control and having had at least six months of work experience in infection control.
4.Having graduated from a senior high school or a division of a senior vocational school (before reform) other than any of the divisions mentioned in the preceding subparagraph, having taken at least 30 hours of infection control courses and having at least two years of work experience in infection control.
Article 5
An organization (institution) or place shall establish an employee infection control education and training program and carry out employee education and training according to the established program and save training certificates/documents for future reference.
New employees of an organization (institution) must take at least 4 hours of infection control courses within one month after reporting to work; current employees must take at least 4 hours of infection control courses every year and dedicated officer must take at least 8 hours of infection control courses every year.
Article 6
Infection control courses specified in the preceding two articles shall address the following topics:
1. Communicable disease and infection control related policies and regulations.
2. Common infections and communicable diseases found at organizations (Institutions) and places.
3. Infection control and practices.
4. Care practices related to service recipients.
5. Prevention, monitoring, reporting, investigation and handling of communicable diseases, cluster infection and health care related infection.
6. Cleaning and disinfection of environment, facilities, equipment, clothing, covers and sheets.
7. Other infection control related topics.
Article 7
Organizations (institutions) and places shall conduct epidemiological surveillance and reporting of communicable diseases in accordance with Article 26 of the Act and the Regulations on Implementation of Communicable Disease Surveillance and Alert Systems for Communicable Diseases, and establish the flow process for handling patients with a suspected communicable disease.
Article 8
Organizations (institutions) and places shall establish standard operating procedures for prevention, monitoring, investigation and control of suspected infections and responding to abnormal situations.
When an organization (institution) or place has an incident of suspected infection, the organization (institution) or place shall report the incident and adopt appropriate isolation measures as required by the competent authority, and produce an investigation, handling and improvement report and follow up on the case, and where necessary, request assistance from the competent authority.
Article 9
Organizations (institutions) and places shall restrict employees with infectious skin, gastrointestinal or respiratory diseases from performing care or food preparation services.
Article 10
Organizations (institutions) and places shall, based on the needs for prevention and control of communicable diseases, collect the health information of employees and service recipients, ask them to take chest X-ray and/or receive prophylactic inoculation, carry out body temperature monitoring and conduct other necessary examinations or adopt other anti-epidemic measures.
Article 11
Organizations (institutions) and places should propagate hand hygiene, cough etiquette and wearing masks, and post at conspicuous places communicable disease prevention and control related health education messages.
Article 12
Organizations (institutions) and places should draw up visitor management rules and save related records, and if so needed for epidemic control purposes, conduct body temperature monitoring or adopt other necessary anti-epidemic measures for visitors.
Article 13
Organizations (institutions) and places that provide invasive health care services shall establish standard operating procedures for the following:
1. Care of patients undergoing invasive procedure.
2. Employees in direct contact with blood and body fluids and prevention, handling and follow-up of needle stick incidents.
Article 14
Organizations (institutions) and places shall be equipped with adequate and proper handwashing equipment and establish standard operating procedure and inspection mechanism for employee handwashing.
Article 15
Organizations (institutions) and places shall establish standard operating procedures for cleaning and disinfection of environment, facilities and equipment.
Article 16
Organizations (institutions) and places shall stockpile safety stock of infection control equipment and supplies, store them properly, periodically inspect the stock and their expiration dates and save relevant records.
Article 17
Competent authorities of the municipal and county (city) governments shall conduct infection control inspection of organizations (institutions) and places; the inspection checklist is as follows:
1. Improvement of infection control quality.
2. Health management of staff.
3. Health management of service recipients.
4. Status of vaccination.
5. Infection control education and training of staff.
6. Cleaning of environment and vector control.
7. Establishment of anti-epidemic mechanism.
8. Establishment and use of isolation space.
9. Implementation of medical care.
10. Infection prevention, handling and monitoring of service recipients.
The inspection specified in the preceding paragraph shall be conducted at least once every four years, which however may be increased or decreased based on needs; the central competent authority may assign personnel to assist in or conduct inspection.
The inspection checklist and criteria mentioned in the first paragraph shall be announced by the central competent authority.
Article 18
The competent authorities may invite representatives from relevant agencies or infection control related experts or scholars to participate in an inspection.
Article 19
This set of Regulations shall be implemented on the day of announcement.