Purpose and Scope
- This procedure sets the requirements to prevent and control infection transmission at [Location/Service].
- It applies to all employees (clinical, care, housekeeping, and administrative), students, volunteers, and contractors working in designated care or operational areas.
- The [Role] acts as the Infection Control Lead, responsible for maintaining this procedure, managing training, and leading reviews after exposure incidents or outbreaks.
- For personnel with occupational exposure to blood or other potentially infectious materials, use this procedure alongside the written Exposure Control Plan kept at [Location].
- This procedure aligns with official public health guidance and workplace safety regulations for bloodborne pathogens and general infection control duties.
Working through related paperwork at the same time? See also our UK Infection Control Procedure Template, US Safe Lifting & Materials Handling Procedure Template and Accident & Incident Reporting Procedure Template.
Standard Precautions
Apply standard precautions to every patient and client interaction, regardless of suspected or confirmed infection status:
- Treat all blood, body fluids, secretions, excretions (except sweat), non-intact skin, and mucous membranes as infectious.
- Perform hand hygiene at designated key moments during routine tasks.
- Select personal protective equipment (PPE) based on the exposure risk of the task.
- Practice safe sharps handling: never recap needles, dispose of sharps immediately at the point of use into approved containers, and replace containers before they fill up.
- Practice respiratory hygiene: cover coughs, provide masks to symptomatic individuals where appropriate, and follow staff illness policies.
- Use transmission-based precautions (contact, droplet, airborne) alongside standard precautions whenever a known or suspected infection requires extra controls, following public health guidance and the [Location Isolation Procedure].
Hand Hygiene Procedure
- Clean hands before touching a patient or client, before clean or aseptic tasks, after potential body fluid exposure, after touching a patient or client, and after touching surroundings.
- Use alcohol-based hand rub as the default method. Cover all hand surfaces and rub until completely dry.
- Wash with soap and running water when hands are visibly dirty, after caring for patients with suspected or confirmed Clostridioides difficile or norovirus, and after using the restroom.
- Remove rings and wristwear per policy, keep fingernails short and clean, and cover cuts or abrasions with waterproof dressings before starting a shift.
- Clean hands immediately after removing gloves or other PPE.
- Check supply levels regularly and report empty or broken dispensers to [Role] the same day.
Personal Protective Equipment Procedure
- Use the matrix at [Location] to pick the right PPE for the job: gloves for contact with blood, body fluids, or contaminated surfaces; gowns if clothing or skin might get soiled; masks and eye protection if splashes or sprays are expected; and respirators [Type] for airborne precautions.
- Don PPE before entering the work or care area in this order: clean hands, put on gown, put on mask or respirator (seal-check respirators), put on eye protection, and put on gloves last (pull gloves over gown cuffs).
- Doff PPE at the exit or designated area in this order: remove gloves, remove eye protection, remove gown, clean hands, and remove mask or respirator last (touch only ties or straps).
- Change PPE between patients, and swap it immediately if torn, damaged, or soaked. Never reuse gloves.
- Toss used PPE immediately at the point of removal into designated [Waste Stream] containers.
- Report PPE stock shortages to [Role] immediately.
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Cleaning and Disinfection Procedure
- Clean visible soil off surfaces before applying disinfectant.
- Use approved disinfectants listed at [Location]. Dilute per manufacturer instructions and keep surfaces wet for the full contact time listed on the label.
- Clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces (bed rails, door handles, call buttons, faucets, shared keyboards) at [Frequency] and between individual uses.
- Clean and disinfect shared equipment (blood pressure cuffs, hoists, thermometers, wheelchairs) after every use following the equipment matrix at [Location].
- Handle soiled laundry carefully with minimal agitation. Do not sort or rinse laundry in care areas. Bag laundry at the point of use per [Site Laundry Procedure].
- Clean blood and body fluid spills immediately: put on PPE, absorb the liquid, clean the area, disinfect with [Approved Product], and dispose of waste into [Waste Stream].
- Fill out and sign the cleaning log after finishing tasks.
Exposure Incident Response Procedure
- Sharps injury or skin-breaking bite: wash the wound thoroughly with soap and running water immediately. Do not squeeze the area.
- Splashes to eyes, nose, or mouth: flush the area immediately with clean water or saline for [Duration].
- Report the incident to [Role] immediately.
- Get a medical evaluation and follow-up care per the Exposure Control Plan at [Occupational Health Provider / Emergency Department]. Provide all known details about the source.
- Log the incident details and complete a formal report. The [Role] will handle safety regulation reporting classifications.
- Hold a post-incident debrief within [Number] days to review causes and assign corrective actions for equipment, technique, staffing, or procedures.
Records and Review
- Keep training records, cleaning sign-off sheets, exposure logs, and incident reports at [Location] for [Retention Period].
- Retain exposure and medical records for the timeframe set in the Exposure Control Plan and safety regulations.
- Review this procedure [Frequency], after exposure incidents or disease outbreaks, and whenever public health guidance or operational services change.
- Document Owner: [Role]
- Next Review Date: [Date]
FAQs on an infection control procedure
What is an infection control procedure?
An infection control procedure sets the requirements to prevent and control infection transmission at your site.
Having it written down means the same rules apply to everyone, so managers are not making judgement calls case by case under pressure.
What does an infection control procedure include?
This template covers standard precautions, hand hygiene procedure, personal protective equipment procedure and cleaning and disinfection procedure.
Every section is written to be filled in. The bracketed placeholders mark the decisions that are yours to make, such as timescales, approval owners and retention periods.
How to implement an infection control procedure with Whale
Copy this template into Whale and work through the bracketed placeholders so it reflects how your organisation actually operates.
Assign it to the teams it applies to so it sits where people work rather than in a shared drive, and set a review date so it gets revisited on schedule instead of quietly going out of date.
Use our templates to fast-track your documentation
Customize this template and 100s of others for free in Whale, the fastest way to get your team aligned.