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Medical asepsis, also called “clean technique,” reduces the number and transmission of disease-causing microorganisms after they leave the body, but doesn’t necessarily eliminate them. It is used to care for clients with infectious diseases; to prevent reinfection of the client; and to avoid spreading infection from one person to another, or throughout the facility.
The core medical aseptic practices include the following:
- handwashing
- cleaning the environment,
- wearing appropriate PPE (gloves, gowns, masks, face shields, hair and shoe covers),
- disinfecting articles and surfaces,
- the use of antiseptics.
Proper hand hygiene is a key component. Isolation precautions are an example of medical asepsis; the client, the client’s environment, and the health care providers are protected from contamination or reinfection by medical aseptic techniques. Medical asepsis is one of the two types of asepsis; surgical asepsis is the other.
