Guide to Infection Prevention for Outpatient Settings: Minimum Expectations for Safe Care

The transition of healthcare delivery from acute care hospitals to outpatient (ambulatory care) settings, along with ongoing outbreaks and patient notification events, have demonstrated the need for greater understanding and implementation of basic infection prevention guidance The following document is a summary guide of infection prevention recommendations for outpatient (ambulatory care) settings. The recommendations included in this document are not new but rather reflect existing evidence-based guidelines produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee. This summary guide is based primarily upon elements of Standard Precautions and represents the minimum infection prevention expectations for safe care in ambulatory care settings. Readers are urged to consult the full guidelines for additional background, rationale, and evidence behind each recommendation.  All guidelines are available at:  http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/prevent/prevent_pubs.html By highlighting existing CDC and HICPAC recommendations, this summary guide: 1) provides basic infection prevention recommendations for outpatient (ambulatory care) settings; 2) reaffirms Standard Precautions as the foundation for preventing transmission of infectious agents during patient care in all healthcare settings; 3) provides links to full guidelines and source documents, which readers can reference for more detailed background and recommendations.