Infection Control Part 2 (RADS 210)

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

federal agency that protects workers and students from work related injuries and illnesses

-inspects work sites & enforces regulations

The Joint Commission (TJC)

sets requirements for hospital safety, infection control practices, patient care

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Performs research and complies statistical data concerning infectious diseases, develops immunization guidelines

-looking at infectious diseases

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

responsible for protective the public from false drug claims and regulated the manufacture and sale of medication

United States Public Health Service

Investigates and controls communicable diseases, controls carriers of communicable diseases from foreign countries

World Health Organization (WHO)

Works under the United nations to reduce famine and disease throughout the world

United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)

Helps children, esp children in developing countries to avoid malnutrition and disease

-also assists with educational programs for deprived children

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)

Specifies and notifies agents to destroy various types of medical waste

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

specifies destruction practices for waste from patients with contagious highly communicable diseases

Nuclear Control Agency (NCA)

controls disposal of nuclear waste

Universal Precautions/ Standard Precautions

a widespread set of procedures and regulations instituted for the safe handling and disposal of blood and body substances

Standard precautions are best used at:

all times when you or any health care worker is caring for a patient

Standar precautions are effective b/c they are based on the assumption that

every patient has the potential for having an infectious disease

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

requires that all workplaces to have a policy for employees who may be exposed to human blood or body substances

Sharps

anything that could cut or stick.

ex. needles, scalpels, glass syringes, glass vitals

Environmental Asepsis

using care in environment to make sure all surfaces, linen, equipment have been properly disinfected, preventing spread of disease from on patient to another, or to health care workers

-proper disposal/ handling of linens, bedpans, catheters, sharps, wound care

Medical Asepsis

microorganisms have been removed through use of soap, water, friction, and various disinfectants

ex. handwashing, hand sanitizer, alcohol, etc.

Sepsis

a condition in which the body is fighting a severe infection that has spread via the bloodstream

Surgical Asepsis

Microorganisms and their spores have been completely destroyed by cleaning the object using medical asepsis followed by sterilization (heat or chemicals)

spore

a cell produced by bacteria to withstand extreme heat or cold or dehydration

transmission-based precautions

measures taken to prevent the spread of diseases from people suspected to be infected with highly transmissible pathogens that require measures beyond standard precautions

3 specific routes of disease transmission are:

air, droplet, contact

Airborne precautions

microbes spread on evaporated droplets that remain suspended in air or are carried on dust particles in air (long periods of time)

-may be inhaled by person in that room or space

Diseases that spread by airborne method

TB !, Chicken Pox, Measles

Isolation precautions for airborne diseases

private room with negative pressure to prevent pathogenic organisms from flowing out of the isolation room

-particulate mask, standard precautions

Droplet precautions

transmitted by droplets when droplets contaminated are placed in air, occurs when patient sneezes, coughs, talks

-inhaled by others

Droplets are not spread for more than

3 feet by cough sneeze talking

Diseases transmitted by droplets

-influenza

-rubella (german measles, rash on skin)

-most pneumonias

-meningococcal meningitis

Isolation Precautions for droplet diseases include:

-private room or with someone infected with same disease

-mask for any procedure that requires less than 3ft in proximity to infected person

-standard precaution

contact precautions (2 types)

direct & indirect

Colonization

the presence of microorganisms on the skin or body surface of an individual who has no symptoms of the disease

Diseases transmitted by contact

-shigella

-Hepatitis A

-Herpes simplex

-Impetigo

-Scabies

-draining abscesses

Standard Precautions for Contact Diseases

-private room or with another person infected with same disease

-Globes worn by worker

-Gown if there is a possibility of touching pt or patients items

protective or reverse isolation

used in situations when a patient is highly susceptible to becoming infected: using the strictest of standard precautions (ex. chemo patients)

-"Strict Isolation"

Sterile Field

Microorganism-free area that can receive sterile supplies

-the patient is this

Sterile field includes

the patient, the table, and other furniture covered with sterile drapes, and the personnel wearing sterile attire

Area of sterile field on technologist/radiologist/ sterile personnel

front of body from waist up

Sterile persons pass each other

front to front or back to back (BEST) and

Immunosuppressed or immunocompromised

a person whose body does not adequately defend itself against disease (ex. chemo patients)

human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

the virus that causes AIDS

AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome)

incurable disease with a high mortality rate

viral hepatitis

An inflammation of cells or liver that are initially acute

-renders the victims as chronic carriers of the disease, can be fatal

Persons most susceptible to contacting HVB & HVC because of the blood to blood methods are:

-those who share contaminated needles

-having multiple sex partners

-hemophiliacs-free bleeders

Which viral hepatitis types are transmitted by fecal oral route

Hepatitis A (HVA) & Hepatitis E (HVE), the rest are blood or body fluid contacts