Infection Control, Sterilization, and Patient Safety Standards
Standard of safe practice
Ohio’s infection-control rule incorporates accepted standards: hand hygiene, PPE, safe injection practices, sharps handling, environmental cleaning, and sterilization of critical items. The goal is to break the chain of infection for every patient, not only those with known bloodborne disease.
Key controls
- Critical items that contact blood or penetrate tissue must be cleaned and sterilized, usually by steam autoclave; monitor with biological indicators.
- Semicritical items require sterilization or high-level disinfection per the rule.
- Use single-use items once; do not reprocess disposables.
- Disinfect clinical contact surfaces; keep clean and dirty areas separate.
- Follow manufacturer instructions for sterilizer loading, temperature, and waterline maintenance.
Worked example
After periodontal scaling, scalers are contaminated with blood. Rinsing them and wiping with disinfectant is not enough: they are critical. The correct sequence is transport in a labeled container, clean to remove bioburden, package, autoclave, and document the cycle. If a spore test fails, quarantine the load and follow recall and reprocessing procedures.
Traps
“Cold sterilization” is not a substitute for autoclaving critical instruments. Disinfecting a handpiece with a wipe does not sterilize it. Overloading the autoclave or skipping biological monitoring creates false assurance. Do not let gloves replace hand hygiene.