Brief report
Cleanliness of portable medical equipment disinfected by nursing staff

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Increased attention has been focused on disinfection by housekeepers, but few data are available on disinfection of equipment by nurses. We used adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence assays and aerobic cultures to assess the cleanliness of portable medical equipment disinfected by nurses between each patient use. We found that the equipment was not being disinfected as per protocol and that education and feedback to nursing are warranted to improve disinfection of medical equipment.

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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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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.

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