Educate Staff on How to Prevent Infection Transmission

Healthcare personnel in the ambulatory care setting should be educated about how to best prevent the transmission of infectious agents, and infection prevention and control policies should be updated every 2 years, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Writing in Pediatrics, an updated policy statement emphasized the importance of hand hygiene, as well as implementing specific isolation precautions when dealing with patients with specific highly infectious illnesses. The authors said that respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette strategies are necessary when handling patients with respiratory tract infections, such as cystic fibrosis. They further discussed the necessity of separating infected children from uninfected children, as well as proper disposal of all needles and medical devices and the appropriate use of personal protective equipment.

Finally, the authors addressed public health interventions, including that both patients and healthcare personnel should be up to date with their immunizations.