ASHE Publishes Updated Infection Control Risk Assessment

The American Society for Health Care Engineering published an updated infection control risk assessment called ICRA 2.0, which promotes and directs interdisciplinary infection prevention in healthcare facilities during construction, renovation and maintenance.

The first formal ICRA was introduced in the 1996 edition of the Facility Guidelines Institute’s Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospital and Healthcare Facilities. ASHE, with other industry organizations and experts, created a step-by-step ICRA process and subsequently pursued efforts to clearly delineate what would be included in the ICRA process.

In July 2020, ASHE put together a multidisciplinary team to evaluate and improve the existing ICRA guide to better serve healthcare organizations.

In 2022, ASHE launched an e-learning course, “ICRA 2.0: Improving Patient Protections,” which instructs learners to apply the tool to the healthcare environment, emphasizing multidisciplinary input. A demo of the course was available to attendees of the 2022 International Summit & Exhibition on Health Facility Planning, Design & Construction in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In addition to the e-learning course, ASHE is actively developing additional components to support user interface with ICRA 2.0, including a process guide and train-the-trainer course. For more details, visit ashe.org.