Tuberculosis, or TB, is an infectious and sometimes serious bacterial disease that usually affects the lungs. It is spread person-to-person via the air- often through speaking, coughing, or singing. While partially preventable from a vaccine, it is still prevalent around the world and is particularly dangerous for immunocompromised individuals.
While tuberculosis is a viable threat to public health regardless of setting, health care workers must be particularly wary of its presence and take the proper precautions to prevent it. Its infectious nature makes it dangerous to those with compromised immune systems. Because of this, the CDC created a set of guidelines for every healthcare worker to abide by to keep their patients safe.
Their guidelines fall within a three step hierarchy:
- Administrative measures
- Environmental controls
- Respiratory protective equipment
We’ve organized these three categories for you to ensure that you’ve got everything covered before interacting with patients.
Taking measures at the administrative level is imperative to halting TB before it even gets through the doors. The CDC cites it as the most important piece of the hierarchy and should be given the utmost attention. Here are some steps that they recommend you and your organization take within a Home Care setting:
- Assigning someone the responsibility for TB infection control in the health care setting;
- Conducting a TB risk assessment of the setting;
- Developing and implementing a written TB infection-control plan;
- Ensuring the availability of recommended laboratory processing, testing, and reporting of results;
- Implementing effective work practices for managing patients who may have TB disease;
- Ensuring proper cleaning, sterilization, or disinfection of equipment that might be contaminated (e.g., endoscopes);
- Educating, training, and counseling health care personnel, patients, and visitors about TB infection and TB disease;
- Screening, testing, and evaluating personnel who are at risk for exposure to TB disease;
- Applying epidemiology-based prevention principles, including the use of setting-related TB infection-control data;
- Coordinating efforts between local or state health departments and high-risk health-care and congregate settings.
These measures are the front line in preventing TB infection across the organization. Ensuring that TB testing is accessible for your employees (using providers like Vitable) is key to preventing its spread within your organization.
While administrative measures provide ample protection in spreading TB in a home care setting, ensuring that environmental controls are implemented within the home are key as well. If there is an infection within a home care environment, the CDC recommends using “local exhaust ventilation (like hoods, tents, or booths) and diluting/removing contaminated air with general ventilation”.
Additionally, it is recommended that protective equipment is used whenever a possible exposure to TB is suspected. This includes masks, face shields, or any other protective gear to prevent infectious droplet nuclei from permeating a vulnerable home. The CDC also advises home care workers to implement these measures:
- Implementing a respiratory protection program;
- Training health care personnel on respiratory protection
- Educating patients on respiratory hygiene and the importance of cough etiquette procedures.
For home care workers, implementing these preventative measures is incredibly important as they are visiting a patient’s home; there are possibly other immunocompromised individuals living there too. Because the care environment is so dynamic, ensuring that a TB prevention procedure is in place is a must for adapting to the homes of different patients. At Vitable, we want to make sure your team has the proper tests they need to create a safe and effective care environment. After all, health is the first priority- before, during and after caring for your patients.
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