Infection Control Guidelines for Medical Offices

Infectious diseases are some of the greatest threats to workplaces in the health-care industry. The spread of infections affects patients, professionals, and third-party visitors. Proper infection control in medical offices enhances everyone’s health and safety, preventing life-threatening risks. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) establishes and enforces many infection control practices that coincide with OSHA’s workplace health and safety standards. We’ve collected and simplified the best infection control guidelines for medical offices to give you a one-stop-shop resource for infection protection.  

Risk Assessments

Regular risk assessments ensure your medical office effectively implements the best health and safety practices for infection control. During the risk assessment, you want to look out for any possible infection hazards, from poor equipment and facility sanitation to the use of PPE.  

Hand Hygiene

Hands are major germ spreaders. Anytime you touch a surface, your hands collect its germs or spread new germs that you came into contact with earlier onto it. Washing and sanitizing hands regularly, especially between seeing different patients, reduces the risks of spreading germs through physical touch. Proper hand hygiene stops you from passing one patient’s illness and germs to others and onto various surfaces that risk further infection exposure.  

Respiratory Hygiene

Exposure to infectious germs can occur in many ways, from physical touch to ingestion. Airborne contaminants and germs can spread through respiration. Wearing masks and proper respiratory hygiene etiquette—coughing and sneezing into your sleeve or a tissue—prevent the spread of infections through the respiratory system. Mitigating germs passing through the air protects everyone from breathing in and catching infectious diseases.  

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

PPE comes in many forms, from face masks to aprons, creating a barrier between you and external exposures. Wearing PPE is an effective infection control and prevention solution because it prevents direct contact with germs. Popular infection control PPE for medical offices includes the following: 

• Face masks

• Gloves

• Eyewear

• Scrubs

Facility and Equipment Sterilization

Any surface area, from your medical office’s door to surgical equipment, can harbor infectious germs. Sterilization and disinfection remove germs from surfaces, reducing the spread of infections. Facility and equipment sterilization ensures anything that the staff and patients encounter is germ-free and comes with little to no risk of infection exposure.  

Sharps Safety

Medical offices use a lot of sharp equipment. Whether it is a scalpel or needle, any sharp object increases the risks of infection exposure. They can gain and spread germs to and from the internal body. The proper disposal, sanitation, and storage of sharps prevent you from spreading infections and reduce internal infection exposure through open wounds and injections.  

Injection and Medication Safety

Injections and medications come into contact with one’s internal systems—the most vulnerable part of the body. Make sure injection equipment isn’t reused after use and that the patient’s medications are not exposed to contaminants. This prevents infectious germs from entering the body. 

Infection Isolation

Containment is a great infection control practice. The more contained an infection, the lower the exposure risk. Treating and holding infectious patients in isolated areas minimizes infection spread and contains hazards to a generalized area that’s easier to monitor and control. Keeping hazardous materials that were exposed to infectious germs in a contained and isolated disposal space also prevents disease spread.  

Employee Training

Employee training guarantees that your staff implements the best infection control and prevention practices. Proper education ensures everyone in the medical office plays their part in keeping their workspace healthy and safe.  

OSHA compliance training courses educate health-care workers on more in-depth infection control guidelines for medical offices as well as other important workplace health and safety subjects. At Gamma Compliance, we offer quality and effective OSHA training that enhances the health and safety of your medical office in many ways. Protect your staff and patients with Gamma Compliance training manuals.