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Practical Approaches for Assessment of Daily and Post-discharge Room Disinfection in Healthcare Facilities

  • Healthcare Associated Infections (G Bearman and D Morgan, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Cleaning and disinfection in healthcare facilities is essential to ensure patient safety. This review examines practical strategies used to assess and improve the effectiveness of daily and post-discharge manual cleaning in healthcare facilities.

Recent Findings

Effective implementation of cleaning interventions requires objective monitoring of staff performance with regular feedback on performance. Use of fluorescent markers to assess thoroughness of cleaning and measurement of residual ATP can provide rapid and objective feedback to personnel and have been associated with improved cleaning. Direct observation of cleaning and interviews with front-line staff are useful to identify variations and deficiencies in practice that may not be detected by other methods. Although not recommended for routine monitoring, cultures can be helpful for outbreak investigations.

Summary

Monitoring and feedback can be effective in improving cleaning and disinfection in healthcare facilities. Ongoing commitment within institutions is needed to sustain successful cleaning and disinfection programs.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Medicine Institute Center for Value Based Care Research, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, 44195, USA

    Abhishek Deshpande

  2. Department of Infectious Disease, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, 44195, USA

    Abhishek Deshpande

  3. Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center, Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Curtis J. Donskey

Authors
  1. Abhishek Deshpande
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  2. Curtis J. Donskey
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abhishek Deshpande.

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Conflict of Interest

Dr. Deshpande has received research funding from 3M, Clorox, and Steris.

Dr. Donskey has received research funding from EcoLab, Clorox, GOJO, and Altapure and serves on an advisory board for 3M.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by the author.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Healthcare Associated Infections

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Deshpande, A., Donskey, C.J. Practical Approaches for Assessment of Daily and Post-discharge Room Disinfection in Healthcare Facilities. Curr Infect Dis Rep 19, 32 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11908-017-0585-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11908-017-0585-6

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