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Infection Control & Standard Precaution Practices

AUBMC Policy
-Healthcare workers shall assume that all patients are potentially infectious.
-Standard Precautions shall be applied on all patients in the hospital.
-Standard Precautions are designed to reduce the risk of transmission of microorganisms from
both recognized and unrecognized sources of infection in healthcare settings.
-Standard Precautions apply to all patients and in all situations, regardless of diagnosis or
presumed infection status. Because all patients can serve as reservoirs for infectious agents,
adherence to -Standard Precautions during the care of ALL patients is essential for interrupting
the transmission of microorganisms.

Contact precaution
 Reduce the risk of transmission of epidemiologically important microorganisms by the
direct or indirect contact with the patients or the patients’ environment. Contact, or touch,
is the most common and most significant mode of transmission of infectious agents.

 Patients on Contact Precautions include those infected or colonized with Clostridium

difficile ("C. Diff") (please refer to Clostridium difficile Precautions listed above),
rotavirus, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), multi-drug resistant
Acinetobacter baumannii, or other organisms deemed significant by the ICPP.

Contact Plus Precaution

 All personnel (physicians, nurses, technicians, support staff and others) are responsible
for complying with C. Difficile isolation precautions.
 Contact, or touch, is the most common and most significant mode of transmission of
infectious agents such as C. difficile. Contact transmission can occur through direct
patient contact, through contact with the patient's environment, or through contaminated
gloves or equipment.
 Clostridium difficile infection is caused by an anaerobic spore-forming gram-positive
bacillus. It is the most common cause of healthcare-associated infectious diarrhoea.
 Spore: a dormant non-productive body formed by certain bacteria in response to adverse
environmental factors.
 Toxin: a chemical compound produced by some pathogenic bacteria highly poisonous to
other living organisms.
Use Contact Plus Precautions for patients with known C. difficile-associated colitis:
 Place the patient in a private room.
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 Post the contact plus precaution sign at the entrance of the patient’s location.

 When a private room is not available:

a. Post the contact plus isolation sign.

b. Ensure easy access to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

c. Use gowns when entering patients’ rooms even if soiling of clothes is not likely.

d. Use gloves when entering patients’ rooms and during patient care.

ALWAYS WASH HANDS WITH SOAP and WATER AFTER REMOVING GLOVES.

e. Dedicate disposable equipment (e.g., stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, thermometer,

etc.). No Sharing of equipment is allowed.

f. Practice strict standard precautions between interactions with patients in the same
room.

 Hand hygiene is the most important activity to prevent transmission.

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Alcohol-based solutions are not effective against spore-forming bacteria like C.

difficile.

 CONTINUE THESE CONTACT PLUS PRECAUTIONS UNTIL 48 HOURS

AFTER CESSATION OF DIARRHEA AFTER EACH PATIENT CONTACT.

Droplet precaution
 Prevent the transmission of infectious agents that are spread through close
respiratory or mucous membrane contact with respiratory secretions Droplets
are formed when a person coughs, sneezes, speaks, spits, or undergoes oral or
tracheal/bronchial suctioning. Transmission occurs when droplets (larger than 5
µm in size) containing microorganisms generated from an infected person are
propelled a short distance (about 1 meter), and may come in contact with another
person's conjunctivae or mucous membranes (eyes, nose or mouth).

 Transmission Based Precautions transmitted by the droplet route include

influenza, and meningococcal meningitis. Droplets do not remain suspended in
the air, and are not transmitted by the airborne route.
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Airborne precaution
 Prevent transmission of infectious agents that remain infectious over long
distances when suspended in the air (e.g., rubella virus [measles], varicella virus
[chickenpox], Mycobacterium tuberculosis, etc.

 The preferred placement for patients who require Airborne Precautions is in an

airborne infection isolation room (AIIR), which is a single-patient room that is
equipped with special air handling (negative pressure) and ventilation capacity.
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