Cleaning practices in the hospital setting: Are high-touch surfaces in isolation and standard precaution patient rooms cleaned to the same standard?
The purpose of this quality improvement project was to identify differences in cleaning practices between isolation rooms and standard precaution rooms in the hospital setting. An ultravoilet marking system was used to evaluate high-touch surfaces throughout the patient environment. Results reveal the importance of refining training systems to reflect staff perceptions and improve evaluation processes across systems in an effort to reduce health care-associated infections.
Infection Prevention & Control, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA. Electronic address: zelikoff@uw.edu.
Allison J
AJ
Zelikoff
Infection Prevention & Control, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA.
Timothy H
TH
Dellit
Infection Prevention & Control, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA.
John
J
Lynch
Infection Prevention & Control, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA.
Elizabeth A
EA
McNamara
Infection Prevention & Control, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA.
Vanessa A
VA
Makarewicz
D004203:Disinfection / Q000379:methods*; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D006302:Health Services Research; D006761:Hospitals; D006797:Housekeeping, Hospital / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D010362:Patients' Rooms
Infection control; audit; cleaning; environmental services; health care–associated infection; precaution