Infection Control, Public Health, and Mandatory Reporting Statutes
Infection control and public health
This domain tests routine infection prevention and the chiropractor’s role in mandatory public-health reporting. Chiropractic tables, equipment, and skin contact create obligations even in low-risk outpatient settings.
- Use standard precautions: hand hygiene before and after patient contact, gloves when contact with blood or body fluids is likely, and appropriate PPE. Clean and disinfect tables, pillows, and equipment between patients with an EPA-registered disinfectant used per label.
- Maintain a written exposure-control plan, train staff, handle sharps and contaminated laundry safely, and manage bloodborne-pathogen exposure promptly.
- Report communicable diseases and suspected abuse or neglect as Nevada law requires. Keep reports timely and factual; reporting in good faith is protected.
- Do not practice while infectious with a condition that poses a transmission risk; follow public-health directives.
Worked example
A patient’s skin is bleeding during treatment. You stop, don gloves, clean the area, disinfect the table with the correct contact time, dispose of contaminated materials properly, and document the exposure incident. The reasoning: visible blood triggers standard precautions and disinfection beyond routine cleaning.
Traps
Wiping a table without allowing disinfectant contact time; using the same gloves for multiple patients; failing to report a notifiable disease because “the physician will do it”; ignoring an exposure because the patient looks healthy. Those are infection-control and reporting failures.