What precautions should you take when entering a patients room and leaving a patients room?

Isolation precautions create barriers between people and germs. These types of precautions help prevent the spread of germs in the hospital.

Anybody who visits a hospital patient who has an isolation sign outside their door should stop at the nurses' station before entering the patient's room. The number of visitors and staff who enter the patient's room may be limited.

Different types of isolation precautions protect against different types of germs.

When you are close to patients or close to handling blood, bodily fluid, bodily tissues, mucous membranes, or areas of open skin, you must use personal protective equipment (PPE).

Follow standard precautions with all patients, based on the type of exposure expected.

Depending on the anticipated exposure, types of PPE that may be required include:

• Gloves
• Masks and goggles
• Aprons, gowns, and shoe covers

It is also important to properly clean up afterward.

Transmission-based precautions are extra steps to follow for illnesses that are caused by certain germs. Transmission-based precautions are followed in addition to standard precautions. Some infections require more than one type of transmission-based precaution.

Follow transmission-based precautions when an illness is first suspected. Stop following these precautions only when that illness has been treated or ruled out and the room has been cleaned.

Patients should stay in their rooms as much as possible while these precautions are in place. They may need to wear a mask when they leave their rooms.

Airborne precautions may be needed for germs that are so small they can float in the air and travel long distances.

• Airborne precautions help keep staff, visitors, and other people from breathing in these germs and getting sick.
• Germs that warrant airborne precautions include chickenpox, measles, and tuberculosis (TB) bacteria infecting the lungs or larynx (voicebox).
• People who have these germs should be in special rooms where the air is gently sucked out and not allowed to flow into the hallway. This is called a negative pressure room.
• Anyone who goes into the room should put on a well-fitted respirator mask before they enter.

Contact precautions may be needed for germs that are spread by touching.

• Contact precautions help keep staff and visitors from spreading the germs after touching a person or an object the person has touched.
• Some of the germs that contact precautions protect from are C difficile, norovirus, and COVID-19. These germs can cause serious infection in the intestines or lungs.
• Anyone entering the room who may touch the person or objects in the room should wear a gown and gloves.

Droplet precautions are used to prevent contact with mucus and other secretions from the nose and sinuses, throat, airways, and lungs.

• When a person talks, sneezes, or coughs, droplets that contain germs can travel about 3 feet (90 centimeters).
• Illnesses that require droplet precautions include influenza (flu), pertussis (whooping cough), mumps, and respiratory illnesses, such as those caused by coronavirus infections including COVID-19.
• Anyone who goes into the room should wear a surgical mask.

Calfee DP. Prevention and control of health care-associated infections. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Goldman-Cecil Medicine. 26th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2020:chap 266.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Isolation precautions. www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/isolation/index.html. Updated July 22, 2019. Accessed October 24, 2021.

Palmore TN. Infection prevention and control in the health care setting. In: Bennett JE, Dolin R, Blaser MJ, eds. Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett's Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. 9th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2020:chap 298.

Updated by: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

Isolation Precautions for Adult Patients

Airborne isolation precautions

What are airborne precautions?

Airborne precautions are steps that healthcare facility visitors and staff need to follow when going into or leaving a patient’s room. Airborne precautions are for patients who have germs that can spread through the air. They help stop germs from spreading so other people don’t get sick.

How do I know if a patient is on airborne precautions?

There will be a sign at the door. It tells healthcare facility visitors and staff what they need to do before going into the patient’s room and when they leave the room.

What should I do before visiting a patient on airborne precautions?

Speak to a nurse before your first visit and before you bring children. There may be limits on who can visit the patient.

What should I do before I go into the patient’s room?

1. Clean your hands with soap and water or hand sanitizer (alcohol-based hand rub).
2. Put on an air-filtration mask, which is also called an N95 respirator. Ask a nurse to help you put on the mask, check its fit, and take it off properly (video).
3. Enter the room and close the door.

What should I do when I leave the patient’s room?

1. Clean your hands.
2. Leave the patient’s room. Close the door behind you.
3. Take off the mask the way the nurse showed you and put it in the garbage. Don’t touch the front of the mask. Don’t wear the mask in other areas of the healthcare facility.
4. Clean your hands again.

Can a patient on airborne precautions leave their room?

A patient on airborne precautions may leave their room only if necessary (for example, to go for a medical test). They must wear a mask at all times when they’re out of their room.

How else can I stop germs from spreading?

• Don’t visit a patient in a healthcare facility if you have a fever, cold, or diarrhea.
• Don’t visit if you have recently been around someone with a contagious disease (this means a disease others can catch, such as chickenpox or the flu).
• Use public washrooms at the healthcare facility. Don’t use the patient’s washroom.
• Talk to a healthcare provider if you have questions about how to stop germs from spreading.

To see this information online and learn more, visit MyHealth.Alberta.ca/health/pages/conditions.aspx?Hwid=custom.ab_isolation_airborne_inst_adult.

Related to Airborne Isolation Precautions

• Contact isolation precautions
• Droplet isolation precautions
• Contact and droplet isolation precautions
• Airborne and contact isolation precautions

For 24/7 nurse advice and general health information call Health Link at 811.

Current as of: February 1, 2020

Author: Infection Prevention and Control, Alberta Health Services

This material is not a substitute for the advice of a qualified health professional. This material is intended for general information only and is provided on an "as is", "where is" basis. Although reasonable efforts were made to confirm the accuracy of the information, Alberta Health Services does not make any representation or warranty, express, implied or statutory, as to the accuracy, reliability, completeness, applicability or fitness for a particular purpose of such information. Alberta Health Services expressly disclaims all liability for the use of these materials, and for any claims, actions, demands or suits arising from such use.