Safety and ComplianceDifficulty 3/5
To which patients do standard precautions apply?
- APatients placed in isolation by the facility's infection control team
- BPatients whose requisition indicates a test for an infectious disease
- CEvery patient, regardless of their known or suspected infection status
- DPatients with a confirmed bloodborne infection documented in the record
Show answer and rationale
Correct: C. Standard precautions are the baseline applied to everyone, because infection status is often unknown. Transmission-based precautions are the additional layer added for airborne, droplet and contact situations.
- D — Restricting precautions to documented infections leaves undiagnosed patients unprotected.
- A — Isolation triggers transmission-based precautions in addition to, not instead of, standard ones.
- B — What is being tested for does not determine the baseline precautions a phlebotomist takes.