What are high touch areas for infection control?

Author: Ms. Karelle Sawayn MD  |  Last update: Tuesday, December 23, 2025

High touch surfaces include, but are not limited to:
  • Bed rails.
  • Bed frames.
  • Moveable lamps.
  • Tray table.
  • Bedside table.
  • Handles.
  • IV poles.
  • Blood-pressure cuff.

What are examples of high touch surfaces?

Examples of high touch surfaces include:

Surfaces in bathroom facilities, including toilets, flush handles, toilet roll and dispensers, hand dryers, and sinks. Work surfaces and equipment, such as desks, keyboards, printers, mice, phones, monitors, and storage cabinets.

What is meant by high touch areas in CNA?

Housekeeping surfaces can further be divided into those with minimal hand contact, such as floors and ceilings, and those with frequent hand contact, which are referred to as high-touch surfaces. High-touch surfaces include doorknobs, bed rails, light switches, and wall areas around the toilet.

What are high touch surfaces in a patient room?

Common high-touch surfaces include:
  • Bedrails.
  • IV poles.
  • Sink handles.
  • Bedside tables.
  • Counters where medications and supplies are prepared.
  • Edges of privacy curtains.
  • Patient monitoring equipment (e.g., keyboards, control panels)
  • Transport equipment (e.g., wheelchair handles)

What are the high touch areas in the operating room?

The 5 primary high touch surfaces in order were the anesthesia computer mouse, OR bed, nurse computer mouse, OR door, and anesthesia medical cart. Using the OR light as a control, this study demonstrated that a low touch area was less contaminated than the high touch areas with the exception of the OR bed.

APIC 2018 – High Touch Objects Spread Infection

Which areas in the workplace are considered high touch surfaces?

These areas can harbour harmful bacteria and viruses and are often the primary culprits for the spread of illness within a workplace. Examples of high-touch areas in an office setting include door handles and knobs, light switches, lift buttons, restroom surfaces, and shared office equipment.

What is a major part of high touch?

High-touch surfaces are surfaces that frequently come in contact with humans. They can include a number of areas including floors, walls, door knobs, and furniture. Frequent human interactions make high-touch surfaces potential reservoirs for microorganisms, which can serve as obstacles in environmental disinfection.

What does high touch mean in healthcare?

High-touch surfaces are surfaces that are handled many times throughout the day by various users. Researchers observed 50 interactions between healthcare workers and patients in 5 Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and 7 general medical-surgical floors.

What is high touch vs low touch surfaces?

- High-touch surfaces (e.g., door knobs, light switches) should be cleaned and disinfected at least daily, and more frequently if a lot of people at your site are sick. - Low-touch surfaces (e.g., floors, walls) require cleaning on a regular, but not necessarily daily, basis.

What is high touch positioning?

High-touch positioning emphasizes a product's image and links it to emotional experiences, while high-tech positioning focuses on objective performance standards and technical attributes.

What is an example of a low touch surface?

Low-touch areas are surfaces that have minimal contact with the healthcare providers' and clients' hands. For example, the floor, walls, ceiling, ceiling fixtures, mirrors, window sills, artwork on the wall, and surfaces not regularly accessible (e.g., under the bed or chair).

How long should a CNA sanitize?

With an alcohol-based hand sanitizer:

Put product on hands and rub hands together. Cover all surfaces until hands feel dry. This should take around 20 seconds.

What is a high touch approach?

This approach requires more customer hand-holding to provide them with the level of service they expect. In a high touch model, businesses build strong relationships, provide tailored solutions based on a particular customer needs, and offer support.

What is an example of a high touch service?

High-touch service examples
  • Email.
  • Face-to-face meetings or calls with a dedicated customer success manager.
  • Product demos or training (onsite or remote).
  • Special access to product content, such as demos, FAQs, videos, and forums.
  • One-on-one chat or phone-based support.
  • Personal strategy sessions.

How do you disinfect high touch areas?

FOR ELECTRONICS: Use alcohol-based wipes with at least 70% alcohol. When not available, spray disinfectant on a paper towel and wipe down surfaces. CLEANING FREQUENCY: It is recommended that you clean high touch surfaces at least 2-3 times each day, such as at the beginning, middle, or end of each day.

What are 2 examples of minimal touch surfaces?

Some areas need to be cleaned more often. These include frequently touched surfaces like door handles, bed rails, phone, taps and light switches. Other areas might need to be cleaned less often. These are usually minimally touched surfaces like floors, walls, ceilings, windows and blinds.

What are considered high touch surfaces in patient care areas?

High touch surfaces include, but are not limited to:
  • Bed rails.
  • Bed frames.
  • Moveable lamps.
  • Tray table.
  • Bedside table.
  • Handles.
  • IV poles.
  • Blood-pressure cuff.

What is a high touch order?

High-touch trading is characterized by significant human involvement, where brokers execute complex trades on behalf of clients, providing a personalized experience. This approach is ideal for illiquid securities or large orders requiring market expertise and discretion.

What does high touch point mean?

The surfaces and areas in your workplace used or handled frequently are known as high touch points. These surfaces get touched repeatedly throughout the day by most of the staff. They are often the dirtiest surfaces in the workplace and are easily contaminated by bacteria, pathogens and other microorganisms.

How would you explain and define high touch surfaces?

The high-touch surfaces include door handles, hand railings, dining tables, nappy change tables, desks, reception counters, computer keyboards and mice, telephones and light switches.

What is the meaning of high touch?

High-touch refers to the involvement of personal attention and service. In business, the term often refers to situations where trust between the customer and employed individual(s) is necessary.

What is high touch vs low touch?

Customers who require a lot of interaction and less reliance on digital engagement with a company can be considered "high touch." It's hands-on. If they need less human interaction, then they can be classed as low-touch, relying more on self-service resources like knowledge bases, chatbots, and automated emails.

What is another term for high touch?

Intense involvement in providing personalized attention or connection. close engagement. individualized attention. one-on-one interaction. personal touch.

What is an example of a low contact service?

customer service characterised by a low level of personal contact with customers; low-touch customer service is primarily automated or provided by vending machines, such as automatic telling machines at banks, self-service petrol pumps at garages, etc.

What is high touch care management?

High-Touch care is described as “A type of high-intensity care model is one that encourages frequent direct person-to-person interaction between patients and their healthcare providers to optimize the value of care. An emerging name for this model subtype is high-touch care.

Previous article
Why is my spider plant growing so many babies?
Next article
What is the purpose of a roof vent?