Prevention and management of infection in healthcare settings

The practices that form the basic measures to prevent transmission of infectious diseases within health care environments are divided into standard and transmission-based precautions.

When a disease agent is unknown, a symptom-based approach will reduce the risk of transmission to the health care worker and to other patients. For example, if a patient presents with vomiting or diarrhoea or respiratory symptoms (coughing, sneezing and fever) then the appropriate precautions should be implemented immediately, rather than waiting for a definitive diagnosis.

Standard precautions

The use of standard precautions for all patients is the primary strategy for minimising the transmission of infections in health care settings.It is essential that standard precautions are applied at all times when caring for any patient regardless of their infectious disease status. This is becoming more important as the prevalence of unidentified carriage of multidrug-resistant organism (MRO) in community settings increases.

The practices that form part of standard precautions include:

Transmission-based precautions

Transmission-based precautions are applied in addition to standard precautions for patients suspected or confirmed to be infected with specific organisms of concern. The additional precautions required to manage these infections varies according to the route of transmission (airborne, droplet or contact).

The specific additional precautions may involve the use of:

  • isolation facilities (single room)
  • additional respiratory protection, such as the use of high filtration P2/N95 or equivalent respirators
  • disposable gowns, gloves and eye protection on entry to the room.

Details of these requirements are found in local facility procedure manuals, state guidelines for management of multidrug-resistant organisms and the Australian guidelines for the prevention and control of infection in healthcare.

Resources

A useful summary of infectious diseases and their modes of transmission and the specific precautions required can be found in the document Infection Control Management of Infectious Diseases (PDF 467KB).

SA Health has developed specific advice on:

The University of Adelaide have developed several infection prevention and control videos including personal protective equipment (PPE) donning and doffing. This video suite is informed by the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Unit donning, doffing and IPC policy. We would like to acknowledge CALHN IPC Unit for their support and clinical guidance. The principles and information contained in these online videos are applicable to all situations where transmission-based precautions and during a pandemic. A PPE donning and doffing poster (PDF 240KB) and infographic (PDF 107KB) are also available.

The Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care also has a number of generic resources available from their website, such as a set of standardised signage on standard and transmission-based precautions.

SA Health's Infection Control Service also provides educational opportunities for staff with responsibility for infection prevention and control in their facility.

Further information

For further information on the prevention and management of infections in the healthcare settings, contact the SA Health's Infection Control Service.

Clinical information in this section