Information for Health Professionals about Injection Safety

On this page:
Rules, Regulations, Guidelines
Special Considerations for Administering
Drug Diversion
Program Development
More Resources and Tools
Contact Us

Rules, Regulations, Guidelines

Safe injection practices recommendations for health care providers.

• APIC Position Paper: Safe Injection, Infusion, and Medical Vial Practices in Health Care, 2016 (PDF)
  This updated position paper provides practice guidance for infection preventionists and health care facilities on essential safe injection, infusion, and vial practices that should be consistently implemented.
• CDC Injection Safety Resources for Providers
  Information on safe injection practices to help providers ensure every injection is a safe injection, including print materials and videos for staff training.
• CDC: Guide to Infection Prevention for Outpatient Settings: Minimum Expectations for Safe Care
  Infection prevention recommendations and a fillable companion checklist for outpatient (ambulatory care) settings.
  • Guide to Infection Prevention for Outpatient Podiatry Settings (PDF) and Pocket Guide (PDF)
  • Guide to Infection Prevention in Outpatient Orthopedic and Pain Management Office Settings (PDF) and Pocket Guide (PDF)
  • Basic Infection Control and Prevention Plan for Outpatient Oncology Settings and Pocket Guide (PDF)
• CDC: Safe Injection Practices to Prevent Transmission of Infections to Patients
  Excerpt from the 2007 Guideline for Isolation Precautions: Preventing Transmission of Infectious Agents in Healthcare Settings.
• United States Pharmacopeia (USP)
  The USP includes information about injection safety, compounding, the environment, medication preparation, air flow, product safety, labelling, expiration dates, and techniques. USP 797 describes pharmaceutical compounding standards.
  • Note: Access to this information may require a fee. Check with your pharmacist about obtaining access.
• SHEA/APIC Guideline: Infection prevention and control in the long-term care facility (PDF)
  APIC recommendations for long-term care infection control programs. Recommendations cover the structure and function of the infection control program, including surveillance, isolation precautions, outbreak control, resident care, and employee health. 
• The Joint Commission: Sentinel Event Alert Issue 52: Preventing infection from the misuse of vials
  The misuse of these vials has caused harm to individual patients through occurrences and outbreaks of bloodborne pathogens and associated infections, including hepatitis B and C virus, meningitis, and epidural abscesses.
• MDH: Infection Prevention and Control Guidelines
  Guidelines and recommendations related to infection prevention. HAIs are currently one of the top ten leading causes of death in the United States. Health care professionals have an important role in HAI prevention.

Special Considerations for Administering

• Infection Prevention During Blood Glucose Screening
  Tools and resources for preventing infections during blood glucose screening, including a checklist, fact sheets, and injection safety recommendations.
• How to Administer IM (Intramuscular) Injections and SQ (Subcutaneous) Injections - Illustrated! (PDF)
  An illustrated guide to administering IM and SQ injections.
• Immunization Action Coalition: Clinic Tools
  Helpful Resources for Your Vaccination Clinic is a one-stop source of practical information for immunization providers. You will find "how-to" information about providing vaccinations in a clinic or non-traditional setting.

Drug Diversion

• Drug Diversion
  The theft of drugs and controlled substances by health care professionals is a serious problem that can lead to patient harm and jeopardize patient safety.

Program Development

• Injection Safety Best Practices (PDF)
  Best practices for injection safety programs, safe injection techniques, and strategies to prevent unsafe injections.
  • Injection Safety Policies and Procedures Template (Word)
  • Injection Safety Program Planning Worksheet (Word)

More Resources and Tools

• CDC: Injection Safety: What Every Healthcare Provider Needs to Know (PDF)
  One & Only Campaign brochure for providers.
• APIC: Do's & Don'ts for wearing procedure masks in non-surgical healthcare settings (PDF)
  Poster for health care professionals about procedure masks.
• AHRQ: It Takes a Team Infographic (PDF) 
  Everyone in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) plays a role in preventing surgical site and other harmful infections.

Contact Us

• Subscribe to MN Healthcare-Associated Infections Updates
  Join the Minnesota Department of Health's Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) Update Newsletter mailing list for updates and news related to injection safety and healthcare-associated infections. 
• Infection Control Assessment and Response Program (ICAR)
  The ICAR program provides Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI) evaluation to Minnesota health care facilities. We can provide health care facilities with the tools and guidance needed to help everyone work together to prevent HAIs.

• Contact us for more information about safe injection practices or for a consultation.
  

  Minnesota Department of Health
  HAI&AR Section
  Injection Safety Team
  Phone: 651-201-5414 or 1-877-676-5414
  E-mail: Health.HAI@state.mn.us