TB Infection Control Programs
All healthcare settings in Minnesota must have an up-to-date TB infection control plan that ensures prompt detection, airborne isolation, and treatment (or prompt referral) of persons with suspected or confirmed active TB disease.
All settings are required to:
- Establish a TB infection control team. This person or team is responsible for conducting the healthcare setting's facility TB risk assessment and for developing, implementing, and enforcing TB infection control policies and for ensuring training and education of healthcare workers.
- Conduct a facility TB risk assessment.
- Assign supervisory responsibility for the TB infection control program to a qualified person or group of persons.
- Complete and update written TB infection control procedures. Medium risk settings should update plan annually. Low risk settings should update plan every other year. Procedures should include:
- Early recognition: all HCWs know the signs and symptoms of TB and their role in their facility’s TB infection control program.
- Isolation: place patient in airborne infection isolation (AII) room if available; otherwise place patient in separate room with door shut.
- Referral: transfer patient to setting that will evaluate and treat patient.
- Conduct a problem evaluation if a person with suspected or confirmed active TB disease was not promptly recognized and appropriate airborne precautions were not initiated, or if administrative, environmental, or respiratory-protection controls fail.
- Perform a contact investigation in collaboration with the local or state health department if healthcare-associated transmission of M. tuberculosis is suspected. Implement and monitor corrective action as needed.
In addition, settings that expect to encounter (admit) patients with suspected or confirmed active TB disease are required to:
- Implement and maintain environmental controls, including AII rooms.
- Develop a respiratory-protection program.
- Develop a plan for accepting patients with suspected or confirmed active TB disease.
Resources:
- Guidelines
for Preventing the Transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Health-Care Facilities, 2005
From CDC, MMWR, December 30, 2005, 54(RR17);1-141. Attention: Non-MDH link
- Slide Set — Guidelines for Preventing the Transmission of M. tuberculosis in Health-Care Settings, 2005
PowerPoint presentation (150 slides). Attention: Non-MDH link
- Fundamentals of TB Infection Control (PDF: 81KB/2 pages)
Description of the three-level hierarchy of TB infection control. Pages 6 – 7 of Guidelines for Preventing the Transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Health-Care Settings, 2005 (CDC).
- Appendix A. Administrative, environmental, and respiratory-protection controls for selected health-care settings (PDF: 57KB/7 pages)
Appendix A of Guidelines for Preventing the Transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Health-Care Settings, 2005 (CDC).
- Practical Solutions for TB Infection Control: Infectiousness and Isolation 60-minute webinar from the Curry International TB Center. Attention: Non-MDH link
