CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

CHAPTER 6: INTRODUCTION TO INFECTION CONTROL 121
Categorization of Medical Care Workers, Faculty,
and Allied Health Students
Educational institution faculty members and students in programs or course
areas requiring direct contact with patients, with their body wastes, and with
the wastes associated with their care are considered as Category I (high risk ).
Occupational exposure to HIV , HBV, and TB in certain health care professions
is considered to fall under federal guidelines. Specific tasks are assigned to
workers in these occupational areas, such as those related to nursing care, but
are not limited to nurses and include other professionals and custodial types
who may perform duties with certain risks involved. The process of categorizing
tasks for Categories I , II, and III relates to the potential for contracting
covered infectious diseases relative to the specific tasks these workers perform.
The Infection Control Committee normally categorizes occupational tasks for
medical workers on an ongoing basis due to the changes in duties and evolution
of technology.
Three general groups of workers in health care facilities have been identified,
and training for them has been directed toward specific tasks with a level
of risk. Appropriate training is provided for all the various levels of health care
workers categorized into the three groups. These levels of workers are placed
into categories based on their potential for being exposed to blood , respiratory
secretions, and other body fluids in the course of their treatment of patients and
in handling of infectious wastes. In general, the three types of workers are as
follows: Category I personnel have the greatest risk of exposure to infectious
materials, Category II personnel handle materials that might have come in contact
with infectious materials, and Category III personnel have the least risk of
becoming infected in the workplace. Infection control/exposure control manuals
often break down tasks with instructions for methods to be used to protect
oneself depending on the category to which one is assigned as a result of job
duties.
Category I
Nurses, emergency responders, and certain physicians, along with medical laboratory
workers, including those working in histopathology laboratories and
morgues, are at one of the highest risk levels due to the potential for contact with
human blood. Medical laboratory workers are listed as Category I health care
workers since the majority of the work performed by this group involves blood
specimens and other body fluids and tissues. In addition, some medical laboratory
workers perform procedures directly with infectious agents, such as those
workers employed in the microbiology laboratory. Blood and certain other body
fluids carry the highest risk of transmitting an infection to the unwary health
care employee who comes in contact with them. Engineering controls, or equipment
designed to protect the worker, must be used when testing blood and other
potentially infectious materials (OPIM). When protective equipment and supplies
are used where there is potential for contact with body fluids, the possibility of
becoming infected is greatly minimized (Figure 6-2).
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