which agency developed standard precautions

The agency that developed standard precautions in healthcare is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States.

Quick Scoop

• Standard precautions grew out of earlier “universal precautions” created by the CDC in the 1980s to protect healthcare workers from bloodborne pathogens like HIV and hepatitis B.

• In 1996, the CDC updated and broadened these measures and formally introduced the term standard precautions to cover protection for both patients and healthcare workers and for more types of microorganisms and body fluids.

• OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) did not create standard precautions but issues and enforces workplace safety regulations that require employers to provide equipment and conditions that allow staff to follow the CDC’s standard precautions (for example, sharps containers, gloves, masks, and gowns).

So, when someone asks “which agency developed standard precautions,” the accurate answer is: the CDC developed them, with OSHA playing a complementary role in enforcing worker-safety aspects in healthcare settings.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.