Dealing with Cleaning-Related Infection Control Issues Head-On

Similarly, another survey conducted in December 2004 revealed that infection control practitioners at not-for-profit U.S. hospitals and healthcare systems believe 1 in 3 hospitals need to improve infection control systems, funding, staffing, and prevention. The respondents also think considerably more attention in the form of hygienic cleaning, specifically in surgical areas, must be placed on preventing the spread of infection and that hand hygiene is not adequate.³

Locating the Problem

“It’s actually a very positive sign that these infection control specialists believe surgical areas need more attention when it comes to stopping the spread of disease,” says John Richter, a research engineer at Kaivac, Inc.. “We know that just because a surface looks clean, [it] has little bearing on how clean and healthy it really is.”

Richter says that some healthcare facilities are turning to adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence (ATP) rapid-monitoring systems to help locate potentially harmful microorganisms on surfaces and to identify surfaces that need cleaning attention. First developed in the 1970s, these systems can more precisely detect surface contaminants compared to systems used before. However, they tended to be slow and the equipment was expensive. Fortunately, in recent years, these systems have become much smaller, cost effective, easier to use, and can report results in as little as 15 seconds.