Elaine Hunter Gutierrez, manager in the Infection Prevention and Control team at London Health Sciences Centre uses alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR) when she returns to her desk.
March 20, 2025
Ever wonder who works with patients, staff, and visitors to help reduce the spread of infections?
Meet Elaine Hunter Gutierrez, manager of the team of 20 professionals responsible for Infection Prevention and Control at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC).
Every day at LHSC, the Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) department, educate, monitor and help prevent infection and keep patients, staff and visitors safe.
“In infection control, we have to think about patient safety first,” says Hunter Gutierrez. “How can we make sure that if a patient comes into the hospital with an infection the infection doesn't spread to others?”
From a variety of backgrounds, infection control professionals provide their expertise to clinical teams. For Hunter Gutierrez, it was a combination of her passions.
“I studied epidemiology before I went into nursing and I was really passionate about the prevention of infectious diseases, understanding infectious diseases, the processes of infectious diseases, and ultimately how to control and prevent them,” explains Hunter Gutierrez. “My journey with LHSC started in the emergency department as a registered nurse and transitioned to an infection control professional in 2012.”
A champion for infection control while a nurse, Hunter Gutierrez became a certified infection control professional with IPAC.
What’s the best way to prevent infections and keep patients safe?
“The number one thing in infection control is washing our hands. I know it seems very easy, but it's probably the most effective and important step for infection control,” says Hunter Gutierrez.
What does patient safety mean to you?
“Patient and staff safety is the most important aspect of our role, through supporting the clinical units who provide patient care,” says Hunter Gutierrez. "Our job is to make sure that they don't get new infections from the care we provide.”
Hospital acquired infections can cause extended length of stay, new surgeries, new procedures, and additional medications required for patients when they come in for something that is not infection related. The IPAC team can provide the tools the front-line team members need to provide care effectively. “That’s how we know we've done our job,” she says.
Keeping patients safe behind the scenes
Hunter Gutierrez’s role is to manage the team of infection control professionals who go into clinical units and provide resources, materials, training on infectious diseases, how to prevent infection and how the patient care environment can contribute to hospital acquired infections.
Additionally, infection control professionals help behind the scenes with:
- support for construction projects,
- guidance for maintenance, especially if there is remediation required following incidents such as flooding or fire,
- recommendations on the purchasing of products, specifically products related to patient care or in the patient care environment, and
- review various protocols to help support the clinical units in their processes for preventing infection.
“Helping ensure our team has the tools and training they need to support our front-line staff to keep patients, staff and visitors safe is important for me personally, as their manager,” says Hunter Gutierrez. “Working with our team and other departments to figure out how to make things work for infection prevention is what we do every day.”
Patient Safety at LHSC video: