 infection control in outpatient settings old challenges new realities this article discusses how in the us outpatient visits have climbed steadily to nearly a million in 2019 alone according to the cdcs guide to infection prevention for outpatient settings minimum expectations for safe care the past several decades have seen a significant shift in health care delivery from the acute inpatient hospital setting to a variety of outpatient and community based settings more than three fourths of all operations in the us are performed in settings outside the hospital 