§ 7 Hygiene responsibility, hygiene plan and cleaning

In detail

How § 7 and the Hygiene Regulation fit together

§ 7(1) of the QS-VO requires you to follow the relevant hygiene rules, in particular the Austrian Medical Chamber's Hygiene Regulation QS-VO § 7(1). That is the Hygiene-V 2014, last amended in 2022. Subsections 2 to 4 of § 7, on animals and plants, are covered in lesson 6.4.

Responsibility

The practice owner is responsible for hygienically sound operation. In a group practice, responsibility is expressly given to one partner. Single tasks can be delegated to trained staff; the delegation is documented and confirmed with date, name and signature Hygiene-V § 1.

Risk assessment and hygiene plan

• Hygiene requirements follow the practice's tasks, services, patient numbers and risk potential. The doctor or the hygiene officer estimates the infection risk and adapts the hygiene instructions to the range of services Hygiene-V § 2.
• The requirements are set in a hygiene plan, following the template in Annex 1 Hygiene-V § 5(1).
• Specialty recommendations the Medical Chamber publishes on its website are to be followed as far as your services require Hygiene-V § 3.

What is documented in writing

1. training and information of staff on general hygiene requirements,
2. information and responsibility for cleaning and waste disposal,
3. the legally required record of waste,
4. information and responsibility for reprocessing instruments, if the practice reprocesses,
5. procedure instructions for reprocessing,
6. the legally required record of reprocessing, also when an external contractor does it Hygiene-V § 5(2).

Staff confirm training and instruction with date, name and signature. Procedure instructions and responsibilities are documented with the date they were written and the date they took effect Hygiene-V § 6. You need an external hygiene report only if an authority demands one in an inspection Hygiene-V § 7.

Cleaning and disinfection

• The practice is cleaned regularly and thoroughly, however dirty it is expected to be. Work instructions for routine and incident cleaning are in the hygiene plan Hygiene-V § 10(1).
• With changing cleaning staff, cleaning is recorded with the date and initialled (2).
• Floors are disinfected when needed; surfaces at risk of contamination, handrails and the like regularly and when needed. Disinfectants come from the lists of recognised societies or are independently proven (3).
• Liquid soaps and disinfectants stay in their original containers as a rule, with the opening date on them. If you refill, empty the container completely, reprocess it under § 23 and label it with name, composition, hazard warnings, batch number and expiry date (4).
• Medicines and medical devices don't stand directly on treatment-room floors; oxygen cylinders are secured against falling (5).