Touch Screens, Keyboards and Cross-Contamination Issues

Hartmann et al.³ examined the microbial contamination of computer user interfaces with potentially pathogenic microorganisms, compared with other fomites in a surgical intensive care unit of a teaching hospital. The researchers used sterile swabs to take samples from patients’ bedside computer keyboards and mice, and three other sites (infusion pumps, ventilator, ward round trolley) in patient rooms in a 14-bed surgical intensive care unit at a university hospital. At the central ward, samples from the keyboard and mouse of the physicians’ workstation, and control buttons of the ward’s intercom and telephone receiver were taken; quantitative and qualitative bacteriological sampling was conducted. A total of 1,118 samples was analyzed. Microbacterial analysis from samples in patients’ rooms yielded 26 contaminated samples from keyboard and mouse (5.9 percent) compared with 18 positive results from other fomites within patients’ rooms (3.0 percent). At the physicians’ computer terminal two samples obtained from the mouse (6.3 percent) showed positive microbial testing, whereas the ward’s intercom and telephone receiver were not contaminated.