NCCEH: Infection prevention and control infractions and Ontario personal service settings

Infection prevention and control infractions and Ontario personal service settings – What were the common issues in 2018 and what can we do differently?

Katherine Paphitis, Program IPAC Specialist, Public Health Ontario (PHO) 
David Ryding, Program IPAC Specialist, PHO

Through annual inspections of Personal Service Settings (PSS), public health units in Ontario aim to ensure compliance of PSS operators with the recently enacted PSS Regulation (2018) and with the Guide to Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) in PSS document (2019). Failure to comply with IPAC best practices during the provision of personal services such as tattooing, ear and body piercing, nail and hair services can potentially result in a risk of infectious disease transmission to PSS workers and clients. In this webinar, presenters from Public Health Ontario will present the results of their recent study which analyzed PSS inspection data for three Ontario public health units in 2018 to understand the prevalence of common PSS infractions by service type (i.e., body modification, aesthetics, hair & barbering). Observed trends will ideally inform the development of supplemental educational resources for PSS operators and potentially guide public health unit considerations for alternative frequencies of PSS inspections. The presenters will also share their experiences in obtaining, collating, and analyzing inspection data for this study.

Katherine Paphitis 
Program IPAC Specialist, Public Health Ontario (PHO)

Katherine Paphitis is a Program IPAC Specialist in the Outbreak Response and Support (ORS) team at PHO, is a certified Public Health Inspector, and holds degrees in Animal Biology, Public Health & Safety, and Epidemiology. Katherine is currently a PhD candidate in the department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph (OVC) and is the co-chair of the IPAC Canada Surveillance and Applied Epidemiology Interest Group.

David Ryding
Program IPAC Specialist, PHO

David Ryding is a Program IPAC Specialist in the ORS team at PHO and is the co-chair of the Provincial PSS Community of Practice in collaboration with the Ontario Ministry of Health. David joined PHO as an Infection Control Consultant in 2013. Prior to this, he worked as a health inspector in the Communicable Disease Department at the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit. David is a certified Public Health Inspector with his Masters in Public Health from Queen’s University. He obtained and has held is Certification in Infection Control (CIC) since 2009.

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