by Shane Henson — July 18, 2011—To protect patients and help educate clinicians about minimum expectations of safe care, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a concise guide and checklist specifically for health care providers in outpatient care settings such as endoscopy clinics, surgery centers, primary care offices, and pain management clinics.
The Guide to Infection Prevention for Outpatient Settings: Minimum Expectations for Safe Care is based on existing, evidence-based CDC guidelines that apply to a wide range of health care facilities but are mostly used by hospitals, CDC officials say.
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 easy-to-reference guide is accompanied by an Infection Prevention Checklist for Outpatient Settings and supporting materials, including a new, no-cost, certified continuing medical education video course titled Unsafe Injection Practices: Outbreaks, Incidents, and Root Causes. The guide and supporting materials can be used for internal assessment within a facility or practice. They complement ongoing work by CDC and CMS to integrate CDC guidelines into CMS surveys used during inspections of outpatient settings including ambulatory surgery centers.
