Re: What is encompassed in Standard Precautions?

[Cath Murphy]

John et al

I agree that the CDC 2007 is the global standard. Australia would be crazy to deviate from their language as stipulated in the 2007 reference. To do so would potentially add additional confusion. There are standard (no pun intended) verbages used by Guideline writers in Guidelines and in policy to describe the cascading use of precautions. As you know all CDC publications are in the public domain and can be used verbatim. I would recommend that Australia use the CDC language as it is, and as we have always done.

As you would also be aware, CDC Guidelines like our Aussie draft, employ use of carefully graded evidence whereas AICA Standards and many other professional organisations’ standards often reflect common practice rather than evidence. Both are obviously useful at a practical level but ultimately the evidence and common sense should prevail. The arguments/ discussions that are occurring are I suspect likely to be academic or philosophical and whilst interesting they are perhaps not useful especially to a novice ICP or clinician who may be trying to grasp these concepts initially.

Hope this response does not cause offence.

Regards
Cath

Assoc. Prof Cathryn Murphy RN PhD CIC
Managing Director
Infection Control Plus Pty Ltd
PO Box 106
West Burleigh 4219
Queensland
AUSTRALIA
Ph +61 7 5520 1569
Fax + 61 7 5520 1476
Mob +61 419 953 680
http://www.icp.au.com

—–Original Message—–

Dear Colleagues

Further to the recent Draft Aust ICG reviews, we’ve been discussing what is inlcuded in the SP standard.
I’ve usually referred to the CDC 2007 Guideline for Isolation Precautions as the bible in this regard. Table 4 on page 129 details SP – see http://www.asid.net.au/hicsigwiki/index.php?titleStandard_infection_control_precautions

My questions are –
– do others agree that this is the correct list?
– does/should SP also extend to include the range of practices associated with medical and surgical asepsis? The AICA Standard 11 specifies ‘Aseptic technique is to be performed when indicated’ and references AICA Standard 22, Invasive Devices.

I look forward to your views!

The other suggestion I have is that we make it clearer that SP is in fact a base-level contact precaution standard and that Transmission -based Contact Prec are only used in addition when it has been demonstrated that SP are insufficient to prevent transmission.

Best wishes
John

Dr John Ferguson
Director, Infection Prevention and Control Unit
Microbiologist and Infectious Diseases Physician
Hunter New England Health Service
Locked Bag 1, Newcastle, NSW 2310, Australia
tel 61 2 49214422, fax 61 2 49214440

Go to http://www.hicsiganz.org for ANZ healthcare infection control resources and networking.

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