Even though the number of outpatient cases of medical care has increased, the same cannot be said about compliance to standard infection prevention practices, according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

The CDC today announces the release of a new guide and checklist aimed at health care providers in outpatient care settings, such as primary care offices, pain management clinics, and endoscopy clinics. The CDC says the aim is to protect patients.

Michael Bell, M.D., deputy director of CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, said:

“Patients deserve the same basic levels of protection in a hospital or any other health care setting. Failure to follow standard precautions, such as correct injection practices, cannot be tolerated. Repeated outbreaks resulting from unsafe practices, along with breaches of infection control noted in ambulatory surgical centers during inspections by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, indicate the need for better infection prevention across our entire health care system, including outpatient settings.”

Called the Guide to Infection Prevention for Outpatient Settings: Minimum Expectations for Safe Care, it is based mainly on guidelines for hospitals, but can also apply to a wide range of health centers.

There is also an Infection Prevention Checklist for Outpatient Settings, which includes supporting materials, and a continuing medical education video course called Unsafe Injection Practices: Outbreaks, Incidents and Root Causes. It is available through Medscape.org for doctors in every type of health care setting. It was developed together with the Safe Injection Practices Coalition.

At least one member of staff with specialized training in infection control should be on staff or at hand in all outpatient practices, the recommendation urges. This person should help create a written infection control policy and get together regularly with health care providers to discuss the issue.

The guide, as well as supporting materials are aimed at complementing ongoing work by CMS and CDC to integrate CDC guidelines into CMS surveys that are used during outpatient setting inspections.

Patients do not spend the night at outpatient centers. They include doctors’ offices, outpatient surgical centers, non-hospital based clinics, scanning centers, public health clinics, hospital-based outpatient departments and clinics, and physical therapy and rehabilitation centers.

Over 66% of all operations in America take place at outpatient facilities, the CDC informs. The average American made three visits annually to a doctor’s office between 1995 and 2007, reaching nearly 1 billion doctor’s office visits by the end of that period.

Vulnerable patients make up a considerable percentage of people who use health care. It is vital that they receive care under proper conditions, which among other things means minimizing their risk of acquiring HAIs (health care-associated infections).

Health care staff should make sure that:

  • They follow procedures carefully when handling medical equipment that has the potential for contamination
  • Make sure injections are administered according to safe medical practices

Outpatient practices and facilities must:

  • Maintain and develop occupational health and infection prevention programs.
  • A fully trained infection control employee should be employed or readily at hand at each facility; they should also be responsible for supervising the facility’s infection prevention program.
  • Write infection-prevention policies and procedures aimed at optimizing standards for the specific facility. These should be based on evidence-based guidelines, standards or regulations.
  • Make sure all staff receive task- or job-specific prevention training and education
  • Make sure adherence to standard precautions are made possible with adequate and proper supplies
  • Regularly evaluate medical personnel’s’ adherence to infection prevention practices
  • Refer to the CDC’s infection prevention checklist when assessing infection control practices
  • Make sure they abide to local and federal requirements regarding HAI surveillance, as well as reportable diseases and the reporting of outbreaks

http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/settings/outpatient/outpatient-settings.html

Written by Christian Nordqvist