CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

CHAPTER 6: INTRODUCTION TO INFECTION CONTROL 123
FIGURE 6-3 Personal protective equipment used to protect the medical worker against biohazardous materials.
Source: Delmar/Cengage Learning.
If a shipment is lost, the health care facility and not the waste transport
company may be responsible for ensuring that the wastes are
recovered and are properly disposed of according to local, state,
and federal laws.
Category III
Clerical jobs and dining room tasks pose little likelihood of the
worker coming in contact with blood and body fluids. However,
this category of worker is often in contact with the patient for
information gathering, interviews for admission processes, and perhaps
dietetic consultations, so TB has the potential for being transmitted
to Category III workers if the patient is coughing forcefully.
In some facilities, clerical personnel may be required to accompany
the patient and to obtain a history from emergency patients in
treatment areas, where they may come in contact with the patient
in question or with other patients. In this event, the clerical worker
would be treated the same as a worker providing direct patient
Infection Control Alert
Categories of Health Care Workers
Category I Workers
Subject to the highest potential for
exposure to infectious and toxic
materials
Category II Workers
Incidental to the nature of their job duties,
these workers may be exposed
Category III Workers
Seldom or ever subject to exposure;
clerical personnel may unwittingly be
exposed to patient with TB, however,
when taking patient history and
admitting patients
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