This glossary was created with input from members of PICNet, PHAC Infection Control Guidelines and the BC Ministry of Health. A list of references is available here. Definitions will be updated frequently and may change or be removed. Please send us your comments and feedback by email to picnet@phsa.ca.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Barrier Techniques: Use of single rooms, gloves, masks, or gowns in health care settings to prevent transmission of microorganisms (9).

Benchmark: A benchmark is a value (score) for comparing the results of one’s performance to the result of other services, interventions, programs, organizations, or processes that are recognized as excellent and as a way of making improvements (2).

Best Practice: Best practices are approaches that have been shown to produce superior results, selected from a systematic process, and judged as “exemplary, good, or successfully demonstrated”. Best practices are usually set out in a manner which describes and documents effective clinical intervention or administrative approach. Best practices can be adapted to fit a particular organization. Best practices are desirable but not mandatory. If a best practice was intended to be a mandatory requirement, it would need to be articulated as a policy statement (2).

Bias: Systematic deviation of results or interferences from the truth. Processes leading to such deviation. An error in the conception and design of a study-or in the collection, analysis, interpretation, reporting, publication or review of the data-leading to results or conclusions that are systematically (as opposed to randomly) different from the truth. (17)

Biofilm: The process of irreversible adhesion initiated by the binding of bacteria to the surface by means of exopolysaccharide material (glycocalyx). The development of adherent micro-colonies leads eventually to the production of a continuous biofilm on the colonized surface. Bacteria within biofilms tend to be more resistant to antibiotics and biocides than cells in batchtype culture (8).

Biomedical Waste: Waste that is generated by human or animal health care facilities, medical or veterinary settings, health care teaching establishments, laboratories, and facilities involved in the production of vaccines (8).

Body Mass Index: Anthropometric measure defined as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters. This measure correlates closely with body density and skin fold thickness. (11)

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