Officials unveil infection prevention guide for outpatient care

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday released a guide of infection prevention recommendations for outpatient services. 

The guide comes as more and more patients have been getting their care in outpatient clinics, physician offices and community-based settings rather than inpatient hospitals over the past few decades. Such settings "have traditionally lacked infrastructure and resources to support infection prevention and surveillance activities," the CDC says.

The recommendations were crafted in collaboration with the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee, an advisory body of 14 infection control experts. According to the CDC, the guide seeks to provide basic infection prevention recommendations for outpatient (ambulatory care) settings; reaffirm standard precautions as the foundation for preventing transmission of infectious agents during patient care in all healthcare settings; and provide links to full guidelines and source documents for more detailed background and recommendations.