Recently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the release of its “Guide to Infection Prevention for Outpatient Settings: Minimum Expectations for Safe Care.” The guide is based on existing, evidence-based CDC guidelines that apply to a wide range of health-care facilities but are mostly used by hospitals.
Among other important recommendations, the guide states that all outpatient practices should ensure that at least one individual with specific training in infection control is on staff or regularly available. This individual should be involved in developing a written infection control policy and have regular communication with health care providers to address specific issues or concerns.
The CDC also released a companion “Infection Prevention Checklist,” which enables you to systematically assess infection prevention practices of individual health-care personnel. Get more information from the CDC about preventing health-care associated infections in outpatient settings.
