offers assistance to those interested in improving infection control in health care and community settings:
- Phone assistance with communicable disease and reporting questions.
- Assistance with outbreak investigation and control issues; call phone number.
- Consultations to provide public health information.
Inter-Facility Infection Prevention and Safety Form
- Guidelines and Precautions
- Injection Safety
- Hand Hygiene
- Environmental Cleaning
- Personal Protective Equipment
- Assisted Living and Long-term Care
- External Resources
Precautions
- Infection Control Guidelines: Standard, Contact, Airborne and Droplet Precautions
- CDC Standard Precautions Page
- MRSA and soft tissue infection guide for medical assistants and nurses.
Guidelines
Injection Safety
Hand Hygiene
- Hand Hygiene information for Healthcare Providers
- Six-Step Hand-Washing Technique Found Most Effective for Reducing Bacteria (Study to Compare CDC and WHO methods)
- Wash Your Handsington Campaign
Environmental Cleaning
- Quick Reference Information for Healthcare Providers
- Guide to Sterilization and Disinfection of Instruments, Equipment Surfaces
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
- How to Use Personal Protective Equipment
- How to Properly Put on and Take Off PPE (CDC)
- Do’s & Don’ts for Wearing Gloves in the Healthcare Environment (APIC)
Assisted living and long-term care
- Norovirus/vomiting/diarrhea outbreaks—Know your facility’s normal gastrointestinal illness rate. This will help you quickly identify outbreaks. Use this toolkit if you suspect an outbreak.
- Flu outbreaks—Monitor flu-like illness Oct. 1 through April 30. Use this tool to promptly and effectively respond to an outbreak.
- Assisted living flu outbreaks—Congregate living facilities must provide a safe living environment. Use this tool to quickly identify and control flu outbreaks.
Patient materials
Surveillance
Resources
- Infection control resources and links.
- Healthcare associated infections (CDC)
- Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC)
Infection Control News
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03/14/23 Health Advisory: Extensively Drug-Resistant Shigellosis
Requested actions Background Shigellosis is an acute enteric infection. It is an important cause of domestically acquired and travel-associated bacterial diarrhea in the United States. A low infectious dose makes Shigella bacteria easily transmitted from person to person. Consider shigellosis in the differential diagnosis of acute diarrhea, especially in people who: Shigellosis can be a mild,…
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11/08/22 Health Advisory: Increased Respiratory Virus Activity
Multiple viruses are causing increased respiratory illness, especially among children, straining healthcare systems. Transmission of respiratory illnesses is increased in our communities. Schools report much higher absenteeism than normal for this time of year. Our hospital emergency departments are seeing many patients. This increase in illness early in respiratory illness season highlights the importance of…
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08/25/22 Health Advisory: Monkeypox and COVID-19 Update for Providers
Requested actions Suspect monkeypox virus (MPV) infection in any patient who presents with 1 or more lesions that suggest MPV, regardless of the patient’s age, social history, gender or sexual identity. Several commercial labs, as well as Washington State Public Health Labs (PHL), now test for MPV. PHL updated its MPV specimen collection guidance: Preferred…