Brief reportCleanliness of portable medical equipment disinfected by nursing staff
Section snippets
Methods
We conducted a prospective study in a 500-bed, university-affiliated hospital. During unannounced visits, we sampled all mobile rolling blood pressure (BP) units (Dinamap, GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee, WI; Sphygmomanometer, W. A. Baum Co, Inc, Copiague, NY; Welch Allyn, Beaverton, OR; Nellcor, Hayward, CA) that were located on all medical and surgical wards. Hospital policies specify that disinfection be done between each patient use by nursing staff using a bleach wipe (Dispatch; Caltech
Results
Three hundred ATP readings were taken from 101 rolling BP units. The median RLU values for the 5 sites sampled varied significantly, with the control buttons having the lowest RLU value and the pulse oximeter having the highest (P < .001). The range of ATP RLU values was from 14 to 31,877 (Table 1). The proportion of sites that yielded ATP readings of less than 250 RLUs varied significantly; 44 (76%) of the control buttons, 17 (39%) of the thermometers, 22 (28%) of the blood pressure cuffs, 13
Discussion
There is growing attention being focused on environmental surfaces within health care facilities to reduce the incidence of health care-associated infections. Our hospital developed a multidisciplinary team to develop cleaning and disinfection protocols and to outline the division of labor across departmental lines for specific tasks. Our previous study demonstrated that education and feedback, using a quantitative method to monitor performance, led to improved disinfection by our housekeeping
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Cited by (0)
Supported in part by 3M Corporation.
Conflicts of interest: Dr. Boyce is a consultant to GOJO Industries, 3M, Advanced Sterilization Products, Clorox Corporation, Cardinal Health, and American Cleaning Institute and an Honoraria from Advanced Sterilization Products. The remaining authors report no conflicts.