Strategies to Prevent Infection Transmission in Outpatient Settings

Matt Linam, MD, MS, medical director of Infection Prevention at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, discusses strategies to prevent infection transmission in outpatient settings.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability).

“Things like hand hygiene and making sure that you’re not ill as well as some other strategies can be applied in the outpatient setting. Again, doing hand hygiene frequently is a really important way to keep yourself from potentially contaminating your hands and then inoculating yourself.

Performing good cough etiquette, making sure that you’re covering your cough [by] coughing into your elbow instead of your hands, is a good way to protect those around you, whether you’re in an office setting, school or daycare.

It’s hard for us to miss work or school and not send our kids to daycare if they’re sick, but it really is important because when someone goes to school or daycare and they’ve got some sort of contagious illness, that just furthers the spread to the children around them.”