title: A novel technique for identifying opportunities to improve environmental hygiene in the operating room.
abstract: Environmental cleaning and disinfection is essential for optimizing safe patient care in the OR; however, perioperative staff members have not had an easy-to-use, objective method for determining whether high-touch, potentially contaminated surfaces have been cleaned during terminal room cleaning. To address this issue, members of the Healthcare Environmental Hygiene Study Group used a transparent, removable, environmentally stable disclosing agent and handheld ultraviolet light to determine whether potentially contaminated surfaces had been contacted by a wet disinfection cleaning cloth during terminal cleaning of ORs. Results from the project showed that 237 of 946 targeted surfaces (25%) had the disclosing agent removed (ie, were cleaned). The use of the disclosing agent for staff education and process monitoring has led to significant improvements in the disinfection cleaning process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Infection Control, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, USA.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jefferson
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Whelan
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dick
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carling
mesh_terms: D004203:Disinfection; D006920:Hygiene; D009873:Operating Rooms