Prevention of Infection in Intensive Care Unit

Recommendations

Nurse to patient ratio must be at least one nurse to two patients (Strong Recommendation)

Use Standard Precautions as recommended for all patient interactions (Strong Recommendation)

Provide supplies and equipment necessary for the consistent observance of Standard Precautions, including hand hygiene products and personal protective equipment  (Strong Recommendation)                                        

In addition to Standard Precautions, use Transmission-Based Precautions for patients with documented or suspected infection or colonization with highly transmissible or epidemiologically-important pathogens. (Strong Recommendation)                                                                                                                           

During the delivery of healthcare, avoid unnecessary touching of surfaces in close proximity to the patient to prevent both contamination of clean hands from environmental surfaces and transmission of pathogens from contaminated hands to surfaces. (Strong Recommendation)                                                                                                                                                  

Monitor the incidence of epidemiologically-important organisms and targeted HAIs that have substantial impact on outcome and for which effective preventive interventions are available; use information collected through surveillance of high-risk populations, procedures, devices and highly transmissible infectious agents to detect transmission of infectious agents in the healthcare facility. (Strong Recommendation)