4.5 Chapter 6950: The Statewide Infection Control Rules for Regulated Persons

4.5 Chapter 6950: The Statewide Infection Control Rules for Regulated Persons

Why this part of the corpus gets skipped — and why that is expensive. PSI's content outline puts Infection Controls at 26 percent of the examination, the third-largest block. Most candidates study MN Rules 3100.6300 and stop there. But PSI's reference list names a second, separate rule chapter under "Board Related Regulations": Infection Control Rules — MN Rules 6950.1000 to 6950.1080. Chapter 6950 is not part of chapter 3100 and is not published in the Board's own rule set, so it is easy to miss entirely.

The Board itself keeps chapter 6950 alive in your renewal cycle. MN Rules 3100.5100, subpart 3, item A, subitem (2) makes an infection control course mandatory for each licensee to maintain licensure and specifies that the course "must primarily address patient safety and health issues as referenced in part 3100.6300 and chapter 6950." The two chapters are meant to be read together.

A status note worth knowing

Chapter 6950 was adopted under the authority of MN Stat. 214.24, and its definitions borrow from MN Stat. 214.18. Those statutory sections — MN Stat. 214.17 through 214.24 — were repealed in 2019 (1Sp2019 c 9, art. 11, s. 112); only MN Stat. 214.25, a data-privacy provision that still references the 2018 versions of sections 214.19, 214.23, and 214.24, survives from that group. Chapter 6950 nevertheless remains published in the Minnesota Rules, remains on PSI's reference list, and remains cross-referenced by 3100.5100. Study it as published. Do not assume a repealed enabling statute has cleared the rule from the examination's reference corpus — the reference list is what the examination is drawn from.

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1. Scope, Purpose & Key Definitions (6950.1000, 6950.1010)

6950.1000 — Statement of purpose. Parts 6950.1000 to 6950.1080 are intended to promote the health and safety of patients and regulated persons by reducing the risk of transmission of HBV and HIV in the provision of health care, through universal precautions and other infection control procedures.

6950.1010 — Definitions. Several are quotable and precise:

Potentially infectious materials is defined in four items. Item B is the dentally significant one: it expressly includes saliva in dental procedures, along with semen, vaginal secretions, cerebrospinal, synovial, pleural, pericardial, peritoneal, and amniotic fluid, any body fluid visibly contaminated with blood, and all body fluids where it is difficult or impossible to differentiate. Item A covers human blood, blood components, and products made from human blood; item C covers any unfixed tissue or organ other than intact skin from a living or dead human; and item D covers HIV- and HBV-containing cultures, media, and experimental-animal tissues.

Personal protective equipment is defined broadly as equipment or overclothes reducing the risk of contact with potentially infectious materials, "including, but not limited to, aprons, clinic jackets, eyeglasses with shields, face shields, foot and leg coverings, gloves, gowns, lab coats, and masks."

2. The Compliance Standard (6950.1020)

Subpart 1 — Scope of responsibility. A regulated person must comply "to the extent that the regulated person has responsibility for, or jurisdiction and control over, a specific infection control procedure." Responsibility follows control, which is why a staff member who does not own a protocol is not automatically liable for it — but the supervising dentist typically is.

Subpart 2 — Exception to compliance. The standard is strict compliance, with a single narrow escape: unless "under rare and extraordinary circumstances, strict compliance with the requirements would prevent the delivery of health care services or impose an increased hazard to the safety of patients or regulated persons." Convenience, cost, and scheduling pressure are not in that exception.

3. CDC Recommendations & the Conflict Rule (6950.1030)

Subpart 1 requires compliance with CDC recommendations to the extent the recommendations are consistent with parts 6950.1000 to 6950.1080, and then incorporates six named documents by reference — the 1985 "Guideline for Handwashing and Hospital Environmental Control" and five Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report issues from 1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, and 1996. The rule itself observes that "the recommendations are subject to frequent change."

Subpart 2 — the tiebreaker that gets tested:

• Where chapter 6950 and CDC recommendations are inconsistent, parts 6950.1000 to 6950.1080 supersede the CDC recommendations.
• Where CDC recommendations are inconsistent with each other, the most recent recommendations supersede the earlier ones.

Hold this alongside MN Rules 3100.6300, subpart 11, which requires compliance with the most current CDC infection control guidelines for dentistry. The two chapters point in the same direction on currency, but 6950 is explicit that the Minnesota rule text wins a direct conflict.

4. Exposure Incidents (6950.1040)

This single unnumbered part carries three distinct duties, and it is the most commonly tested part of chapter 6950 because it is the only one that creates a patient-facing notification obligation.

A regulated person with personal knowledge of an exposure incident must ensure that:

1. the exposed patient is informed of the exposure incident;
2. with the patient's permission, the patient's primary health care provider is informed; and
3. the patient is offered assistance in securing follow-up care immediately or as soon as possible after the exposure.

The institutional shortcut. If the exposure occurs in a health care setting that has written procedures regarding exposure incidents, and those procedures require patient notification and the offer of follow-up assistance, the regulated person satisfies the part by notifying the official designated in the written procedures who is charged with carrying them out.

The confidentiality floor. A regulated person must not disclose to the exposed patient the identity of the source unless the source has explicitly given authorization for release of identity. This is an absolute prohibition in the rule text, and a well-written item will pair a sympathetic fact pattern with an option that discloses the source.

5. No Ceiling on Other Duties (6950.1050)

Chapter 6950 "must not be construed to limit the duty, obligation, or responsibility of a regulated person to comply with policies and procedures" that are designed to prevent transmission of infectious diseases, are consistent with infection control requirements, and are required by a clinic, hospital, institution, or other entity at a clinical practice location. Employer policy that is stricter than the rule still binds.

6. General Controls (6950.1060)

Subpart 1 — General requirements. A regulated person:

• A — must not cut, bend, or break contaminated needles;
• B — must minimize exposure to contaminated sharps, such as by not recapping or removing a contaminated sharp from its base, unless no safer alternative is feasible, the action is required by a specific medical procedure, or the base is reusable — in which case recapping or removal must be accomplished with a mechanical device or a one-handed technique;
• C — must minimize splashing, spraying, spattering, and generation of droplets;
• D — must not perform mouth pipetting or suctioning of potentially infectious materials;
• E — must remove and replace contaminated protective coverings on equipment or work surfaces before caring for a subsequent patient;
• F — must remove debris and residue and decontaminate equipment before repair on site or transport for repair, or else label the equipment as potentially contaminated;
• G — must pick up contaminated objects so that bare or covered skin does not contact contaminated sharp surfaces.

Subpart 2 — Multiple dose vials. A disposable needle or syringe used to withdraw fluid from a multiple dose vial must not be used more than once. A reusable needle or syringe used for that purpose must be sterilized before each use.

Subpart 3 — Handwashing. Wash hands or other skin surfaces as soon as feasible after they or gloves become contaminated, and in any case prior to treatment of a subsequent patient.

Subpart 4 — Contaminated equipment, instruments, and devices.

Item A also requires that all debris and residue be completely removed from reusable contaminated equipment.

Subpart 5 — Transfers. A regulated person must not transfer contaminated disposable sharps or potentially infectious materials from one container to another container.

Subparts 6 and 7 — Sharps containers. The two lists differ in one telling respect.

The storage trigger also differs by purpose: disposable sharps are stored in the container "immediately or as soon as feasible after use and until the sharps are disposed of," while reusable sharps are stored "until the sharps are decontaminated."

7. Personal Protective Equipment (6950.1070)

Subpart 1 — General requirements. PPE must be worn where it is reasonably anticipated that skin, eye, mucous membrane, or parenteral contact with potentially infectious materials may occur, and where such materials may be splashed, sprayed, spattered, or otherwise generated. Contaminated disposable PPE must not be used in the care of more than one patient. PPE must be replaced as necessary to protect the wearer and patients from HBV or HIV transmission, discarded after its ability to function as a barrier is compromised, and, once removed, stored so as not to pose undue risk of an exposure incident.

Subpart 2 — Gloves. A regulated person must wear gloves when contact with potentially infectious materials, mucous membranes, or nonintact skin can be reasonably anticipated, when vascular access procedures are performed, or when contaminated items or surfaces are handled or touched; must wear sterile gloves in preparation for and during surgery requiring sterile technique; must replace gloves before caring for a subsequent patient; must discard gloves that are worn, punctured, or otherwise compromised as a barrier; and must not use disposable examination gloves on more than one patient.

8. Spills and Laundry (6950.1080)

Subpart 1 — Spills. Surfaces must be decontaminated immediately or as soon as feasible after potentially infectious materials are spilled.

Subpart 2 — Laundry. Contaminated linen must be handled as little as possible and with minimum agitation; must be placed in bags that prevent leakage at the location where it is used; and must not be sorted or rinsed in patient-care areas.

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9. Clinical Application

A dental therapist finishes an extraction and, while transferring the used syringe toward a full sharps container on a distant counter, the needle nicks a chairside assistant through her glove. The assistant is exposed; the patient is not.

• Was there an exposure incident? Yes as to the assistant — parenteral contact with potentially infectious materials at a clinical practice location (6950.1010, subpart 5).
• Does 6950.1040 require patient notification here? No. The part's duty runs to the exposed patient. Nothing in 6950.1040 is triggered by a staff-only exposure, though the clinic's own written procedures and MN Rules 3100.3600's separate incident-reporting duties for sedation events may apply on their own terms.
• What was violated before the injury? Several things. The container should have been replaced before it became full (6950.1060, subpart 6, item F), placed as close as feasible to the immediate area where sharps are used (item C), and the sharp should not have been carried across the operatory in a way that risked skin contact with a contaminated sharp surface (subpart 1, item G).
• Could the syringe be recapped for transport? Only under subpart 1, item B — and then only through a mechanical device or one-handed technique, and only if no safer alternative was feasible, the procedure required it, or the base was reusable.
• What must not happen next? If the exposure had involved a patient, the identity of the source patient could not be disclosed to the exposed person without the source's explicit authorization (6950.1040).