Written and maintained by CASRAI Editorial Board
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General information for lab, clinic and facilities staff. It is not medical advice and not a cleaning or infection-control protocol for any specific patient.
Short answer
A privacy curtain is a cloth or fabric divider hung in a clinical space to separate one patient from another. Alberta Health Services (AHS) defines it that way in its infection prevention and control guidance. Because the fabric is touched often, hospitals treat it as a surface that needs its own change schedule. AHS sets one by setting type: monthly in emergency and other 24/7 settings, and bi-annually in most other areas.
What is a privacy curtain?
AHS defines a privacy curtain as a “cloth/fabric divider used to provide separation/privacy from other patients”, and its guidance explicitly excludes window curtains (AHS Infection Prevention and Control, Frequency of Changing Privacy Curtains – Interim Recommendations, revised 2024-08-28). Two features of that definition matter for supply and facilities decisions. It is a textile, so it is laundered or replaced rather than wiped down like a bed rail. And its purpose is separation between patients, which is why it sits in the same conversation as room layout and door design.
What are those hospital curtains called?
The same item goes by several names. “Privacy curtain” is the term AHS uses. “Cubicle curtain” is the term used in the NFPA 101 survey material: in our guide to NFPA 101 in the hospital survey, the K700-K799 band of the CMS survey form (operating features) lists “draperies and cubicle curtains” alongside evacuation plans and upholstered furniture. In everyday speech people simply say “hospital curtain”. Searches for any of these names are about the same object, so this page answers all of them.
What is a privacy screen in a hospital?
“Privacy screen” is a looser term than “privacy curtain”. In our exam-room furnishing checklist, “privacy screen or curtain” is a single line item, listed as needed in any room without a solid door directly to the corridor or where gowning happens in view of a shared entry. The AHS definition quoted above covers fabric dividers only, so the change-frequency guidance below should not be read as applying to rigid or freestanding screens.
How privacy curtains are used and changed in practice
The AHS interim recommendation is a published schedule that is one Canadian provider’s policy for its own facilities. It is not a national or US standard, and a US facility’s schedule is set by its own infection prevention program. It is still useful because it states a decision rule in full, rather than “change regularly”.
Remove first, then schedule
AHS’s first step is to review usage: remove privacy curtains where possible, for example in single rooms, tub rooms and showers, where a door or the facility layout already protects privacy. A curtain that is not hung needs no change schedule. That is a design and procurement question as much as a cleaning one.
AHS change triggers and intervals
| Situation | AHS recommendation |
|---|---|
| Any setting, curtain visibly soiled or contaminated with body fluids | Change it |
| Emergency departments, urgent care centres and other 24/7 ambulatory settings (for example some dialysis clinics) | Routine change at least monthly (every 30 days) |
| Ambulatory sites that are not 24/7 (for example pre-surgery admission, endoscopy, wound, physio and occupational therapy, IV infusion and cast clinics) | Monthly may be counted as 30 operating days, meaning days the clinic operates and the curtains are in use |
| All other areas | Bi-annually, following the AHS environmental services cleaning frequency standard |
| Inpatient on additional precautions | Change after discharge or transfer and when the precautions are discontinued, unless the suspected organism is confirmed non-infectious |
| Outbreak of gastrointestinal illness | Change when visibly soiled and when the additional precautions are lifted |
AHS also tells staff to inspect curtains during routine cleaning and to identify patients, for example those with uncontrolled secretions, who may need more frequent changes.
What the contamination studies show
Two peer-reviewed studies explain why a schedule exists. Neither sets a national interval, and each describes a small number of hospital units.
| Study | Setting | What was measured |
|---|---|---|
| Ohl et al., American Journal of Infection Control 2012;40(10):904-6 | Two intensive care units and one medical ward, 43 curtains in 30 rooms, 180 swab cultures over 3 weeks | 41 of 43 curtains (95%) were contaminated at least once; 21% had MRSA and 42% had VRE; 12 of 13 curtains hung during the study were contaminated within 1 week |
| Shek et al., American Journal of Infection Control 2018;46(9):1019-21 | One burns and plastics unit, 10 freshly laundered curtains (8 at beds, 2 staff-room controls) sampled at the edge hem over 21 days | Day 3 mean 1.17 CFU/cm² at beds versus 0.19 for controls; MRSA found on 1 of 8 bed curtains on day 10 and 5 of 8 on day 14; mean counts 1.86 on day 17 and 5.11 on day 21 |
Ohl and colleagues summarise their finding as: “Privacy curtains are rapidly contaminated with potentially pathogenic bacteria.” Shek and colleagues suggest days 10-14 as a good window to clean or replace curtains in their unit. That is a single-unit result and should not be treated as a general interval.
Read together with the AHS table, the studies show the reason for a short interval in high-turnover settings. They do not show which interval prevents infection, and neither does the AHS document claim to.
Where curtains matter for labs, clinics and supply decisions
- Cleaning audits. AHS tells staff to inspect curtains during routine cleaning and to change them on a schedule separate from room cleaning. Our terminal cleaning guide covers how room cleaning and audit scoring are organised.
- Isolation and precautions. The AHS rule to change curtains when precautions end links curtain handling to isolation practice. See enhanced barrier precautions for how that precaution category differs from standard and contact precautions.
- Life-safety survey. Draperies and cubicle curtains appear in the NFPA 101 operating-features band of the CMS survey form, covered in the NFPA 101 guide.
- Room setup. Whether a room needs a curtain at all is part of the exam-room furnishing checklist.
Common misunderstandings
- “Curtains are cleaned when the room is cleaned.” AHS treats the curtain as a separate item with its own interval, alongside routine inspection during cleaning.
- “There is one required interval.” The AHS figures are one provider’s policy. The studies above measured contamination, not an interval that is required.
- “A curtain is always needed.” AHS says to remove them where a door or layout already protects privacy.
- “A privacy curtain and a window curtain are the same.” The AHS guidance excludes window curtains.
FAQ
What are those hospital curtains called?
Privacy curtains (the AHS term) or cubicle curtains (the term in the NFPA 101 survey band), and informally hospital curtains.
What is a privacy curtain?
A cloth or fabric divider used to provide separation and privacy from other patients, per AHS.
What is a privacy screen in a hospital?
A broader term for a divider. In our exam-room checklist it appears as “privacy screen or curtain”. The AHS change-frequency guidance is written for fabric curtains.
How often are privacy curtains changed?
Under the AHS interim recommendation: when visibly soiled, monthly in 24/7 settings, 30 operating days in other ambulatory clinics, and bi-annually elsewhere. Other facilities set their own schedules.
Sources
- Alberta Health Services Infection Prevention and Control, Frequency of Changing Privacy Curtains – Interim Recommendations, revised 2024-08-28, https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/assets/healthinfo/ipc/hi-ipc-bpr-privacy-curtains-freq-info-sht.pdf (checked 2026-10-30).
- Ohl M et al., Am J Infect Control 2012 Dec;40(10):904-6, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22464039/ (checked 2026-10-30).
- Shek K et al., Am J Infect Control 2018 Sep;46(9):1019-21, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29655669/ (checked 2026-10-30).
