Ibr. Duncan et C. Batchelor, ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF BODY SUBSTANCE PRECAUTIONS AS THE INFECTION-CONTROL SYSTEM OF A LARGE TEACHING HOSPITAL, American journal of infection control, 21(6), 1993, pp. 302-309
Background: Body substance precautions was the name given to the body
substance isolation-based infection control system that was introduced
in January 1990 at a Canadian university hospital with 650 acute care
beds and 570 long-term care beds. When the body substance precautions
system was begun, traditional category-specific isolation was discont
inued. Methods: After 2 years, we reviewed the incidence of several ty
pes of nosocomial infections and the frequency of isolation of hospita
l strains of bacteria before and after the introduction of body substa
nce precautions to find out whether this system was as effective as th
e previous system of infection control.Results: Most nosocomial infect
ions did not increase. There was another likely cause for the only one
that did. For many years, we had isolated patients infected or coloni
zed by hospital bacteria, limiting their spread throughout the institu
tion. Body substance precautions proved equally effective in doing thi
s. Conclusion: Our results to date therefore indicate that the body su
bstance precautions system was as successful as category-specific isol
ation used with other standard infection control techniques in maintai
ning low rates of nosocomial infections and in controlling the dissemi
nation of hospital strains of bacteria in our institution. Body substa
nce precautions provided a satisfactory alternative to universal preca
utions and traditional isolation categories for the protection of heal
th care workers against the risk of infection by blood-borne viruses.