Infection prevention and control guidelines
- Infection prevention and control guidelines
- Table of contents
- About these guidelines
- Transmission of infection in health care
- 1. Principles
- 2. Hand hygiene
- Overview – Hand hygiene
- Role of hand hygiene in infection prevention and control
- When hands must be cleansed
- Facilities for hand hygiene
- Hand-hygiene products
- Hand hygiene technique
- Hand care
- Jewellery, nail polish and artificial nails
- Hand hygiene with glove use
- Hand hygiene when specific pathogenic microorganisms are present or suspected
- Other factors affecting practice hygiene
- Hand hygiene for patients
- Resources and references
- 3. Personal protective equipment
- 4. Aseptic technique
- 5. Levels of precaution
- 6. Staff screening immunisation and infection management
- 7. Sharps
- 8. Exposure to blood and other body substances
- Overview – Exposure to blood and other body substances
- Blood-borne viral infection risk
- Strategies for preventing exposure to blood and body substances
- Responsibilities for managing exposure to blood and body substances
- Summary of steps for managing an exposure incident involving a staff member or patient
- Documentation of the exposure
- Resources and references
- 9. Cleaning, laundry and waste management
- Overview – Cleaning, laundry and waste management
- Policy and responsibilities
- Work health and safety issues
- Scheduled cleaning
- Cleaning agents and methods
- Cleaning reprocessing area
- Cleaning after contamination by blood or other body substances (spills)
- Cleaning tools
- Monitoring of cleaning
- Laundry
- Waste management
- Toilets
- Case study
- Resources and references
- 10. Reprocessing reusable medical devices
- Overview – Reprocessing reusable medical devices
- Choosing whether to reprocess or use disposables
- Policies and procedures
- Risk assessment
- Summary of steps in reprocessing medical devices that require sterilisation
- Staff education, training and competency assessment
- Initial treatment at point of use
- Managing the area for reprocessing for reusable medical devices
- Cleaning processes before sterilisation
- Rinsing and drying (after manual cleaning)
- Sterilisers
- Disposable materials used in the sterilisation process
- Preparing the load for sterilising
- Loading the steriliser
- Running the sterilisation cycle
- Unloading the steriliser
- Documenting reprocessing including steriliser cycles
- Documenting performance data for other equipment
- Storing sterilised reusable medical devices
- Monitoring each sterilisation cycle
- Record keeping
- Checking steriliser function
- Steriliser maintenance
- Step-by-step guide: simple first validation
- Step-by-step guide: complex validation
- Validating reprocessing procedures
- Tracking reusable medical devices for patient tracing
- Offsite sterilisation services
- Reusable medical devices on loan
- Reprocessing of reusable medical devices used off-site
- Reprocessing of specific categories of medical devices
- Resources and references
- 11. Disease surveillance and outbreak response
- Overview – Disease surveillance and outbreak response
- Response procedure
- Staff education
- Monitoring for threats
- Notifying relevant authorities
- Contact tracing
- Practice response to threats
- Patient-specific precautions
- Receptionists’ infection prevention and control kit
- Critical infection prevention and control incidents
- Resources
- 12. Planning a practice: design, fit-out, equipment and consumables
Infection prevention and control guidelines for general practices and other office-based and community-based practices
1. Principles
2. Hand hygiene
Overview
Role of hand hygiene in infection prevention and control
When hands must be cleansed
Facilities for hand hygiene
Hand-hygiene products
Hand hygiene technique
Hand care
Jewellery, nail polish and artificial nails
Hand hygiene with glove use
Hand hygiene when specific pathogenic microorganisms are present or suspected
Other factors affecting practice hygiene
Hand hygiene for patients
Resources and references
3. Personal protective equipment
4. Aseptic technique
5. Levels of precaution
6. Staff screening immunisation and infection management
7. Sharps
8. Exposure to blood and other body substances
Overview
Blood-borne viral infection risk
Strategies for preventing exposure to blood and body substances
Responsibilities for managing exposure to blood and body substances
Summary of steps for managing an exposure incident involving a staff member or patient
Documentation of the exposure
Resources and references
9. Cleaning, laundry and waste management
Overview
Policy and responsibilities
Work health and safety issues
Scheduled cleaning
Cleaning agents and methods
Cleaning reprocessing area
Cleaning after contamination by blood or other body substances (spills)
Cleaning tools
Monitoring of cleaning
Laundry
Waste management
Toilets
Case study
Resources and references
10. Reprocessing reusable medical devices
Overview
Choosing whether to reprocess or use disposables
Policies and procedures
Risk assessment
Summary of steps in reprocessing medical devices that require sterilisation
Staff education, training and competency assessment
Initial treatment at point of use
Managing the area for reprocessing for reusable medical devices
Cleaning processes before sterilisation
Rinsing and drying (after manual cleaning)
Sterilisers
Disposable materials used in the sterilisation process
Preparing the load for sterilising
Loading the steriliser
Running the sterilisation cycle
Unloading the steriliser
Documenting reprocessing including steriliser cycles
Documenting performance data for other equipment
Storing sterilised equipment
Monitoring each sterilisation cycle
Record keeping
Checking steriliser function
Steriliser maintenance
Validating reprocessing procedures
Step-by-step guide: simple first validation
Step-by-step guide: complex validation
Tracking reusable medical devices for patient tracing
Offsite sterilisation services
Reusable medical devices on loan
Reprocessing of reusable medical devices used off-site
Reprocessing of specific categories of medical devices
11. Disease surveillance and outbreak response
12. Planning a practice: design, fit-out, equipment and consumables
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FAQs
What is the 5th edition of the RACGP infection prevention and control standards? ›
The RACGP Infection Prevention and Control Standards (5th edition) is a guide to assist health professionals and other staff implementing procedures involving infection prevention and control and is available at http://www.racgp.org.au/your-practice/standards/infectioncontrol.
What is the full form of RACGP? ›The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) is Australia's largest professional general practice organisation representing more than 40,000 urban and rural general practitioner members.
What standard is used for risk management in Australian general practices who developed it and what is its purpose? ›The RACGP has developed the Standards for general practices (5th edition) (the Standards) with the purpose of protecting patients from harm by improving the quality and safety of health services.
What is the Red Book of the Australian Guidelines? ›The Red Book covers primary (preventing the initial occurrence of a disorder) and secondary (preventive early detection and intervention) activities. These guidelines focus on preventive activities applicable to substantial portions of the general practice population rather than specific subgroups.
What are the 5 standards of infection control? ›- Hand hygiene.
- Use of personal protective equipment (e.g., gloves, masks, eyewear).
- Respiratory hygiene / cough etiquette.
- Sharps safety (engineering and work practice controls).
- Safe injection practices (i.e., aseptic technique for parenteral medications).
- Sterile instruments and devices.
Standard precautions are basic infection prevention and control strategies that apply to everyone, regardless of their perceived or confirmed infectious status. Strategies include hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, cleaning, and appropriate handling and disposal of sharps.
How old is RACGP? ›The first meeting of what was to become the RACGP Council was held in March 1958. The College entered its fiftieth year of service to the community in 2007.
How long is RACGP fellowship? ›Vocational training towards RACGP Fellowship (FRACGP) is three years full-time (or part-time equivalent), comprising hospital training (12 months), general practice placements (18 months) and extended skills (six months).
What is RACGP first line antihypertensive? ›Prescribing guidelines vary, but generally favour thiazide diuretics as first line treatment for uncomplicated essential hypertension.
How often do risk assessments need to be reviewed? ›It is at your discretion to decide when a review is deemed necessary, but risk assessments are a working document and, as your business experiences change, this information should be recorded and updated. As a guide, it is recommended that risk assessments be reviewed on an annual basis.
What is a good risk management framework? ›
There are at least five crucial components that must be considered when creating a risk management framework. They include risk identification; risk measurement and assessment; risk mitigation; risk reporting and monitoring; and risk governance.
What are the best risk management standards? ›ISO 31000 and the COSO ERM framework are the two most popular risk management standards. Here's what they include and some of their similarities and differences. Every organization has to take business risks in order to succeed.
What is the latest edition of the Red Book Racgp? ›The new 9th edition of the RACGP's Guidelines for preventive activities in general practice (Red Book), which was released in late 2016, has been updated to ensure Australia's GPs have access to preventive recommendations that are based on the most up-to-date evidence-based guidelines.
What can the Red Book tell you? ›The personal child health record (red book)
They will use it to record your child's weight and height, vaccinations and other important information. You can also add information to the red book yourself. You may want to record any illnesses or accidents your baby has, or any medicines they take.
In Australia: about 44% of adults read at literacy level 1 to 2 (a low level) 38% of adults read at level 3. about 15% read at level 4 to 5 (the highest level).
What is as nzs 4815 2006? ›AS/NZS 4815:2006 - Office-based health care facilities — Reprocessing of reusable medical and surgical instruments and equipment, and maintenance of the associated environment.
How many standards of infection control are there? ›Doing so allows staff to safely apply each of the 10 SICPs by ensuring effective infection prevention and control is maintained. SICPs implementation monitoring must also be ongoing to demonstrate safe practices and commitment to patient, staff and visitor safety.
What are the current infection control guidelines from the CDC called? ›Standard precautions are used for all patient care. They're based on a risk assessment and make use of common sense practices and personal protective equipment use that protect healthcare providers from infection and prevent the spread of infection from patient to patient.
How many standard infection control measures are there? ›There are 10 elements of SICPs: patient placement/assessment of infection risk. hand hygiene. respiratory and cough hygiene.