2016-06-30-AMGH Employee Handbook

INFECTION CONTROL-ROUTINE PRACTICES
AND ADDITIONAL PRECAUTIONS
Routine Practices and Additional Precautions continue to be the terms used across Canada when
talking about infection control precautions.
Routine Practices
Routine Practices are measures to be taken when caring for all clients at all times. They include:
Risk Assessment
Hand Hygiene
Appropriate Use of Personal Protective Equipment
Environmental Controls
Immunization
Health Workplace Policies
Respiratory Etiquette
Education and Training
Additional Precautions are used in addition to Routine Practices when an individual has a known or
suspected organism.
There are three categories of Additional Precautions:
Airborne precautions
Droplet precautions
Contact precautions
Any health care worker has the ability to place any client in Additional Precautions without a
physician’s order.
Disease can be transmitted in more than one way. If this is the case, Droplet, Airborne and
Contact may need to be combined as indicated. For example, most viral respiratory diseases are
spread through the droplet and contact route, so a patient with a viral respiratory illness in the
contagious stage, should be cared for using Droplet and Contact Precautions.
The yellow isolation carts contain all of the necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that is
needed when a patient is placed in Additional Precautions. These carts also contain the signs that
are placed on the patient’s door showing which PPE is required before entering the room.
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