Director of Infection Prevention and Epidemiology
Bronson Methodist Hospital
301 John Street, Box 92
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49007
(269) 341-6316 Work
(269) 341-8675 Fax
(269) 377-3068 mobile
VANENKR@bronsonhg.org
www.bronsonhealth.com

Biography:

Dr. Van Enk grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids in 1977 with a BA in Biology. He earned a MS in Biology with a concentration in microbiology from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1979 where he wrote his theses on the study of medically important yeasts in the environment. He earned a Ph.D. degree in Microbiology from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 1988, studying the microbiology and immunology of Streptococcus agalactiae mucosal colonization. He then taught biology and microbiology for two years at Calvin College and Hope College in Michigan. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical and Public Health Microbiology at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois where he published and presented papers on bacteriology, antibiotic susceptibility testing, and immunology. He served as Chief Microbiologist at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Dayton Ohio for five years, after which he became Director of Microbiology and Infection Control at Bronson Methodist Hospital since 1994, where he is currently the Director of Infection Prevention and Epidemiology and Infection Control Officer.

Dr. Van Enk’s areas of research and teaching interest include clinical microbiology, antibiotics, antibiotic susceptibility testing, antibiotic stewardship, hospital epidemiology, device-related infections, reducing the risk of infection in hospitalized patients, and the role of hospital design and the hospital environment in the spread of infection.

Dr. Van Enk is has been a member of the American Society for Microbiology since 1977, he is a Fellow in the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and is certified as an infection preventionist (CIC) by the Association of Practitioners of Infection Control (APIC). He is a lifetime member of the South Central Association for Clinical Microbiology (SCACM) where he has served many roles, including interest group coordinator, state director, president, and director at large. He is a frequent speaker n the areas of both clinical microbiology and hospital epidemiology and the intersection of these disciplines.

Presentation Title: New Solutions to Control Infection

Synopsis:

Hospitals continue to become safer places for patients, staff and visitors. Hospitals have reduced the risk of infection by changing patient care practices and using safer products, and the rate of many hospital-acquired infections is at or near zero. Customers and regulators, however, expect and demand that no patients acquire infections in hospitals. Now hospitals are looking to their environment to further reduce the risk of infection in their patients.

A number of new technologies claim to reduce the risk of infection by reducing the microbial number in air or on surfaces in the patient environment. Examples include ultraviolet treatment of air in the HVAC system, new chemical disinfectants, microbicidal radiation or chemical generation in the patient room, and application of persistent antimicrobial chemicals to fabrics and surfaces. Some people claim that these products reduce actual infection rates, although it is difficult to prove those claims. This session will examine the role of the environment in the transmission of infection in hospitals, review new approaches to environmental infection control and evaluate the effectiveness of the approaches in improving patient safety.