• Deborah Thompson, Lisa Bowdey, Meghan Brett, and James Cheek.
• New Mexico Department of Health, Santa Fe, NM. Electronic address: dlt3@cornell.edu.
• Am J Infect Control. 2016 Apr 1; 44 (4): 374-80.

BackgroundHealth care-associated infection outbreaks have occurred in outpatient settings due to lapses in infection prevention. However, little is known about the overall infection prevention status in outpatient environments.MethodsA cross-sectional design was employed to assess infection prevention policies and practices at 15 outpatient sites across New Mexico in 2014 during a medical student outpatient rotation. A standardized infection prevention checklist was completed via staff interview; observations of injection safety practices and hand hygiene behavior were conducted. Aggregate data were analyzed using Excel (Microsoft, Redmond, WA) and Stata (version 12.1, Stata Corp, College Station, TX) statistical software.ResultsMedical practice staff interviews reported a mean of 92.8% (median, 96.7%; range, 75.0%-98.9%) presence of recommended policies and practices. One hundred sixty-three injection safety observations were performed that revealed medication vial rubber septums were disinfected with alcohol 78.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 71.1%-84.7%) of the time before piercing. Three hundred thirty hand hygiene observations revealed 33.9% (95% CI, 28.8%-39.1%) use of alcohol-based handrub, 29.1% (95% CI, 24.2%-34.0%) use of soap and water, and 37.0% (95% CI, 31.8%-42.4%) use of no hand hygiene.Discussion And ConclusionThese findings support the need for ongoing infection prevention quality improvement initiatives in outpatient settings and underscore the importance of assessing both self-report and observed behavior of infection prevention compliance.Copyright © 2016 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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