Health Professionals Update - Vol. 18, No. 27
From
Nicholas Brandon, MD, MA, MSc, CCFP, FRCPC
Associate Medical Officer of Health
In this issue
- National Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) Week
- New: Free Public Health Ontario IPAC education course for health care workers
- New: Peel Public Health Disinfectant Tool – how to read disinfectant labels
- Reminder: Reprocessing reusable equipment and instruments
Key messages
- It is National IPAC Week, October 20-25, 2025. Key resources to support implementation of IPAC best practices in clinical office setting are available on Public Health Ontario’s website.
- A new interactive online IPAC course for health care workers is available on Public Health Ontario’s website. Consider adding this course to annual staff education.
- The new Peel Public Health – how to read disinfectant labels tool guides staff in choosing and using disinfectants to support effective environmental cleaning.
- Improper reprocessing of medical equipment poses a higher risk for infectious disease transmission. If there is an autoclave sterilizer in your clinic, ensure it is operated and maintained appropriately.
National Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) Week
IPAC week is an opportunity to raise awareness of IPAC best practices in clinical office settings. This year's theme "Bridging Gaps, Building Bridges" promotes:
- Patient access to the highest standard of IPAC in care settings.
- Coordinated action to strengthen IPAC.
- Essential knowledge and tools to ensure safer health environments.
Refer to Public Health Ontario’s Clinical Office Practice page for tools to support the implementation of IPAC best practices in your office.
New: Free Public Health Ontario IPAC education course for health care workers
As of August 2025, Public Health Ontario has replaced the IPAC Core Competencies online courses with a new interactive e-learning IPAC course for health care workers. These interactive courses can be added to staff orientation and annual staff education to support implementation of appropriate IPAC practices.
New: Peel Public Health Disinfectant Tool – how to read disinfectant labels
Two important factors for achieving effective environmental cleaning and disinfection include 1) proper product selection and 2) correct use. To choose and use disinfectants properly, staff responsible for environmental cleaning need a basic understanding of product labels. To support this learning objective, Peel Public Health developed a new tool available on our IPAC webpage.
Reminder: Reprocessing reusable equipment and instruments
Peel Region IPAC complaint investigations continue to identify knowledge gaps related to the operation of autoclave sterilizers in clinical office settings. These knowledge gaps are important to address, because improperly reprocessed equipment poses a higher risk for infectious disease transmission.
Ensure your clinic is following the extensive guidelines for operating autoclave sterilizers, as required by the CPSO (reference: CPSO policy on Infection Prevention and Control for Clinical Office Practice). Identify gaps in your practice using this PHO checklist: IPAC Checklist for Clinical Office Practice - Reprocessing of Medical Equipment/Devices.
As an alternative to reprocessing, clinics may benefit from changing to single-use disposable medical instruments, especially if only a few instruments are used daily. Single-use disposable instruments have the advantage of being lower risk, because human error is eliminated from the sterilization process.
Contact us
The Health Professionals Update (HPU) is distributed to physician offices in Peel region via fax or email. Share this update with other health professionals in your clinic.
More information:
- Review past HPUs
- Subscribe to HPU emails
- For questions about this update, email healthprofessionals@peelregion.ca