Infection Control for Health Care Workers: What CDC's Updated Guideline Covers

What this is

Infection Control in Healthcare Personnel: Infrastructure and Routine Practices for Occupational Infection Prevention and Control Services is Part I of CDC's guideline on protecting health care personnel from infection. It updates four sections of the 1998 Guideline for Infection Control in Health Care Personnel (and the matching recommendations in its Part II):

• C. Infection control objectives for a personnel health service
• D. Elements of a personnel health service for infection control
• H. Emergency-response personnel
• J. The Americans with Disabilities Act

Those sections covered how occupational health services are set up and run to provide infection prevention and control to health care personnel, plus special considerations for emergency responders and the parts of the Americans with Disabilities Act that bear on occupational health.

Who it is for

Leaders and staff of occupational health services, and the administrators and leaders of health care organizations. The recommendations cover eight elements:

1. Leadership and management
2. Communication and collaboration
3. Assessing and reducing infection risks among staff
4. Medical evaluations
5. Education and training in infection prevention
6. Immunization programs
7. Managing potentially infectious exposures and illnesses
8. Managing staff health records

Key terms

• Occupational health services means any group, department or program — "Employee Health," "Employee Health and Safety," "Occupational Health" and the like — that looks after workplace health and safety, including clinical care for work-related injuries, exposures and illnesses. In health care, that spans communicable diseases, slips, trips and falls, patient-handling injuries, chemical exposures, burnout and workplace violence.
• Health care personnel means everyone, paid or unpaid, working in health care settings who may be exposed, directly or indirectly, to patients or infectious material — body substances, contaminated supplies, devices and equipment, surfaces or air. It excludes dental, autopsy and clinical laboratory staff, who are covered by other guidance.
• Health care settings include acute care and long-term acute care facilities, inpatient rehabilitation, nursing homes and assisted living, home health care, vehicles where care is given (such as mobile clinics), and outpatient facilities such as dialysis centers and physician offices.

What changed since 1998

Health care, and so occupational infection control, has changed. The update:

• covers a broader range of elements needed to provide these services;
• applies to the wider range of settings where care is now given — hospitals, long-term care, and outpatient settings including ambulatory and home care;
• expands guidance on policies and procedures and on how to deliver the services.

New topics:

• administrative support and resources for occupational health from senior leaders;
• oversight by occupational health leadership;
• performance measures to track services and guide quality improvement.

How it was developed

The recommendations draw on a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles and systematic-review repositories published January 2004–December 2015, plus a review of existing guidelines, regulations and standards. They are good practice statements, based on the expert opinion of the authors and the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC).

Sources

Based on "Executive Summary," Infection Control in Healthcare Personnel, Part I: Infrastructure and Routine Practices, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the 1998 guideline; a work of the United States government in the public domain.