Environmental cleaning resources and activities in Canadian acute care hospitals.
BACKGROUND
Environmental cleaning interventions have increased cleaning effectiveness and reduced antibiotic-resistant organisms in hospitals. This study examined cleaning in Canadian acute care hospitals with the goal of developing strategies to improve cleaning and reduce antibiotic-resistant organism rates.


METHODS
Managers most responsible for environmental services (EVS) completed an extensive online survey that assessed EVS resources and cleaning practices.


RESULTS
The response rate was 50.5%; 96 surveys were completed, representing 103 of 204 hospitals. Whereas 86.3% (82/95) of managers responsible for EVS reported their staff was adequately trained and 76.0% (73/96) that supplies and equipment budgets were sufficient, only 46.9% (45/96) reported that EVS had enough personnel to satisfactorily clean their hospital. A substantial minority (36.8%, 35/95) of EVS departments did not audit the cleaning of medical surgical patient rooms on at least a monthly basis. Cleaning audits of medical surgical patient rooms frequently included environmental marking methods in only one third (33.3%, 31/93) of hospitals and frequently included the measurement of residual bioburden in only 13.8% (13/94).


CONCLUSIONS
There was a general need for increased and improved auditing of environmental cleaning in Canadian hospitals, and there were perceived EVS staffing deficits in the majority of hospitals.
Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Quinte Health Care, Belleville, Canada. Electronic address: zoutmand@queensu.ca.
Dick E
DE
Zoutman
Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
B Douglas
BD
Ford
Canadian Association of Environmental Management, Guelph, Ontario, Canada; Homewood Health Centre, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Keith
K
Sopha
D002170:Canada; D003625:Data Collection; D006302:Health Services Research; D006761:Hospitals; D006797:Housekeeping, Hospital / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods*; D007362:Intensive Care Units
Clostridium difficile; Environmental services; Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus