6 Preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections
Learn how to reduce healthcare-associated infection risk through routine precautions, exposure-matched protective equipment, safe medication and equipment practices, and environmental and respiratory hygiene.
How infections spread
can spread through contaminated hands, equipment, surfaces, medications, or respiratory secretions. Prevention relies on consistent precautions, appropriate hygiene, and practices that limit contamination and exposure.
Follow facility policy and current, organism-specific guidance whenever it applies.
Apply precautions consistently
apply to all patient care, whether or not a patient has a suspected or confirmed infection. Select according to the task and the exposure that is anticipated; do not reserve infection-control measures only for patients with a known infection.
Gloves are not needed for every interaction, and wearing gloves does not replace . supplement when additional measures are needed. Contact, Droplet, and Airborne Precautions are used when indicated, and the specific requirements depend on the suspected or confirmed infection.
Match protection to exposure
Choose protective barriers to match the likely exposure. When a procedure may splash or spray body fluids toward the face, use gloves with a mask and eye protection or a face shield. Add a gown if clothing or exposed skin may be exposed to contamination.
Perform after removing gloves. Use soap and water when hands are visibly soiled.
Prepare and administer injections safely
During medication preparation and injection, prevent contamination of both medication and equipment. Use a new, sterile needle and syringe for each injection. Do not reuse a syringe, even if the needle is changed, or use the same syringe for multiple patients even if it appears visibly clean.
Reprocess equipment and dispose of sharps
Before a shared patient-care device is used on another patient, reprocess it according to applicable instructions and facility policy. Reusable equipment must be appropriately cleaned and disinfected or sterilized, as applicable; visible soil alone is not the criterion for whether reprocessing is needed.
For , place a used needle promptly in an appropriate sharps container. Do not recap, bend, break, or hand-manipulate it during routine disposal, and do not carry it elsewhere for disposal.
Clean patient-care areas
Routine in patient-care areas should include frequently touched surfaces. Follow the facility's schedule and procedures, use the required product, and observe its required contact time. Do not limit cleaning to surfaces that look dirty or assume that wearing gloves makes routine room cleaning unnecessary.
Limit respiratory spread
begin at the first point of contact. For a coughing patient in a busy reception area, encourage covering coughs, provide tissues and access to , and use or separation as appropriate while the patient is assessed.
Do not wait for a diagnosis before taking appropriate early measures. These measures can reduce spread while assessment is underway.