NEW
Infection Prevention and Control Best Practices
Canadian Committee on Antibiotic Resistance is very pleased to sponsor and present the recently released:
Infection Prevention and Control Best Practices for Long Term Care, Home and Community Care including Health Care Offices and Ambulatory Clinics (pdf format).
Leading a team of IPC practioners and specialists, Nora Boyd, Infection Control Specialist with Blue Water Health in Ontario, has developed these best practices guidelines to establish routine practices in public health settings. The guidelines include valuable Audit Tools to assist practioners in assessing and evaluating their own routines. Preliminary stakeholder review has been received and input from feedback has been incorporated into this June, 2007 version.
Background to Infection Prevention and Control
Human sources of infecting microorganisms in the institutional setting may be patients, personnel, or, on occasion, visitors. Sources may include persons with active disease, persons in the early stages (incubation period) of a disease, persons who are carrying (colonized by) an infectious agent but have no active disease, or persons who are chronic carriers of an infectious agent. Other sources of microorganisms can be inanimate environmental objects that have become contaminated, including equipment and medications.
Health care professionals can reduce environmental contamination in all health care settings by implementing infection-control precautions including handwashing, appropriate use of barrier precautions, and proper cleaning and disinfection in the health care setting.
Handwashing is considered the single most important measure to reduce the risks of transmitting microorganisms from one person to another or from one site to another on the same patient. Washing hands as promptly and thoroughly as possible before and after each patient contact and after contact with blood, body fluids, secretions, excretions, and equipment or articles contaminated by them is an important component of infection-control and isolation precautions. Gloves, gowns and masks used appropriately also play an important role in reducing the risks of transmission of microorganisms.
