Direct contact transmission involves skin to skin contact and physical transfer of microorganisms to a susceptible host from an infected or colonized person, such as occurs when personnel turn patients, bathe patients or perform other patient care activities that require physical contact. Direct contact can also occur between patients that may have physical contact with each other.

Indirect contact transmission involves a susceptible host with a contaminated intermediate object, usually inanimate, in the patient's environment.

Contact Precautions are to added to Standard Precautions for patients known or suspected to have organisms and/or diseases easily transmitted via direct or indirect contact.

Contact Precautions are required if:

	A patient is colonized and/or infected with multidrug-resistant organism. A multidrug-resistant organism is an organism that is resistant to treatment with standard first-line antibiotics.
	A particular organism is identified as being potentially hazardous to others and/or to the ecology of the hospital environment because of its antibiogram, pathogenicity, virulence, or epidemiologic characteristics (i.e., VRE, MRSA).