Best Practices in Health Care Construction
Professionals in Infection Prevention are in the business of saving lives. The construction professionals of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters are key partners in this mission.
Rising to the COVID-19 Challenge
Online Training Made Carpenters Ready to Meet Healthcare’s Needs
The COVID-19 crisis has amplified the need for effective Infection Prevention strategies in healthcare facilities. The increased demand for emergency renovations, surge centers, and facility upgrades illustrates the vital role that well-trained construction professionals must play in helping to create and implement those strategies.
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC) is at the forefront of the construction industry as an infection prevention partner. For more than a decade, trained Union Carpenters have helped many prominent healthcare providers design and build infection prevention solutions.
At the onset of the pandemic, our training program mobilized. The result? A speedy rollout of special online qualification training for construction workers to safely meet the healthcare industry’s emergency and ongoing needs.
Available through the Carpenters International Training Fund’s online Learning Management System are ICRA Best Practices in Health Care Construction (Refresher); ICRA Awareness; and two new courses to prepare for construction work during the COVID-19 pandemic: COVID-19 Preparedness Qualification and Pandemic/COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Supervisor Course. Our UBC members receive electronic verification upon successful completion of the courses, which allows efficient dispatch to healthcare jobsites.
The COVID-19 courses were distributed across the U.S. and Canada and made accessible to all UBC partner contractors. Many are providing the COVID-19 Preparedness Qualification training to every craft worker on their jobs. More than 50,000 UBC members had taken the Qualification training by Fall 2020.
Thanks to our extensive training and dispatch networks and up-to-the-minute understanding of the Infection Prevention field, UBC-ICRA was able to respond immediately to this unprecedented challenge and UBC-ICRA regional councils have been able to deploy hundreds of well-trained qualified carpenters where they are needed.
Connect With UBC-ICRA to Meet COVID-19 Challenges
We Get It. So Your Patients Don’t.
UBC-ICRA Training Leads the Industry.
Partners in Prevention
We Work with the Leaders in Infection Prevention.
What They're Saying About UBC-ICRA
“On the other side of that wall there may be a patient who just went through chemotherapy or maybe there’s a brand-new baby in that bed. Your construction site is right in an area where you have very immune-compromised people. The most important thing about the ICRA class is making sure that we have a good mix of maintenance individuals, general contractors, subcontractors and infection preventionists. It’s amazing when you start sharing those areas of expertise.”
“Since the ICRA training, we have a better relationship with the infection control team, construction and facilities team. It’s helped us understand what the standards of practice are and to update our process.”
“Our infection preventionists learned new aspects of containment building, types of HEPA filtration and manometers during the session,” she explained. “This increased knowledge was utilized to gain support for the purchase of portable hard sided pop-up containments which have been now utilized in COVID-19 response for interior redesign. Also upgrades and purchase of digital manometers.”
“Morris Hospital worked with the Chicago Carpenters Union ICRA Team in 2018 to ensure that all ICRA guidelines were being followed during our multi-year renovation project. This training was invaluable, and it helped in keeping our workers, staff and patients safe.”
“The [building] trades and infection preventionists have different areas of expertise and a different vocabulary. The [UBC]-ICRA class brings the trades and IPs together so we all can sit at the table and speak the same language. It truly is a win-win for the safety of our patients. ”
“Consolidated Flooring of Chicago is proud to partner with the UBC in the skill advancement and training of our entire workforce. Both INSTALL [floorcovering training] and ICRA prepare our workers and support staff the most current and industry leading training, especially in the ever evolving and unique environments of performing work in modern healthcare facilities.”
“We have become known as the go-to company for ICRA, as demonstrated by the requests from general contractors such as Skanska and Turner, as well as hospitals directly.”
“This is a very thorough and informative class. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to enhance their workforce and company resume.”
“The Carpenters are our frontline people keeping our workers and other trades safe. They also keep the patients safe from anything that we could be putting into their environment.”
“I was impressed the content of the curriculum offered as it was a tremendous opportunity for both Plant and Infection Preventionist to learn together. The way you set up the breakout sessions was just terrific for this!”
“Here at E&K of Denver, we appreciate the training on ICRA because we have been able to utilize it to help the community set up a provisionary hospital to fight Covid-19. We look forward to keep using the knowledge our employees have gained to continue going after this type of work.”
“I find that when I mention to any owner or personnel associated with healthcare or medical centers that I’ve attended [the UBC-ICRA] course it brings instant validity to any input that I may provide.”
“PCI Flortech is committed to working with the UBC on all training that differentiates us from our competitors. By completing the various ICRA and INSTALL training modules, we continue to market our company as one of the premier flooring contractors in the nation.”
“Our relationship with the Carpenters Union has expanded to include providing continuing education credits across the region for their 8-Hour ICRA training. The relationship has had a mutual benefit by expanding the visibility of the Heartland Center across the nation.”
“Marshall University has adopted the UBC-ICRA program, and we’re very pleased. We have practiced infection control and prevention for several years, but it’s been greatly enhanced by the education that’s offered by the Carpenters Union.”
“United Hospital Center has developed a great partnership with the Carpenters ICRA program over the last five years. They offer their program free of charge to hospitals, including special training for Infection Preventionists, who understand the principles of infection control but may not understand construction, renovation, and maintenance practices in their facility.”
“On the other side of that wall there may be a patient who just went through chemotherapy or maybe there’s a brand-new baby in that bed. Your construction site is right in an area where you have very immune-compromised people. The most important thing about the ICRA class is making sure that we have a good mix of maintenance individuals, general contractors, subcontractors and infection preventionists. It’s amazing when you start sharing those areas of expertise.”
“Since the ICRA training, we have a better relationship with the infection control team, construction and facilities team. It’s helped us understand what the standards of practice are and to update our process.”
“Our infection preventionists learned new aspects of containment building, types of HEPA filtration and manometers during the session,” she explained. “This increased knowledge was utilized to gain support for the purchase of portable hard sided pop-up containments which have been now utilized in COVID-19 response for interior redesign. Also upgrades and purchase of digital manometers.”
“Morris Hospital worked with the Chicago Carpenters Union ICRA Team in 2018 to ensure that all ICRA guidelines were being followed during our multi-year renovation project. This training was invaluable, and it helped in keeping our workers, staff and patients safe.”
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