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Innovative Methods of Hospital Disinfection in Prevention of Healthcare-Associated Infections

  • New Technologies and Advances in Infections Prevention (A Marra, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Treatment Options in Infectious Diseases Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

The purpose of this review is to give the reader an update on recent studies and developments regarding the hospital environment role in transmission of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), and novel strategies to obtain a cleaner, safer patient environment. Hospital patient rooms are increasingly recognized as a reservoir of multi-drug-resistant organisms that contribute to HAIs. In simulated environments, surfaces can easily be adequately disinfected of pathogenic bacteria. However, translation into real healthcare settings has been less reliable and efficacious, with barriers to implementation of best practices.

Recent Findings

In this review, we describe and compare new and evolving technologies for enhancing room disinfection, such as UV-C, hydrogen peroxide vapor, ozone, and chlorine. We also review recent studies examining antimicrobial surfaces such as copper and silver and introduce a novel transdisciplinary human factors, systems engineering, and infection prevention approach to improve manual room cleaning. We highlight outstanding questions, including additional benefit of no touch technology in a human factors-optimized manual cleaning setting, and cost-effectiveness of optimized manual cleaning vs additional of no touch technology.

Summary

There are evolving technologies and strategies to enhance patient room cleaning and decrease risk of HAI transmission. It is important for the infection prevention community to keep up to date with, and understand the implications of, these developments so as to best inform hospital HAI reduction strategy.

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References and Recommended Reading

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance.

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Acknowledgments

Clare Rock receives research funding from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Epicenter Program, Johns Hopkins University, grant number 1U54CK000447-01.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N Wolfe St., Halsted 831, Baltimore, MD, 21287-5425, USA

    Clare Rock MD, MS & Bryce A. Small BS

  2. Department of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Clare Rock MD, MS & Bryce A. Small BS

  3. Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Clare Rock MD, MS

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Kerri A. Thom MD, MS

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Correspondence to Clare Rock MD, MS.

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Conflict of Interest

Clare Rock leads a research study examining use of daily UV-C disinfection funded to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine by The Clorox Company.

Bryce A. Small and Kerri A. Thom declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on New Technologies and Advances in Infections Prevention

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Rock, C., Small, B.A., Thom, K.A. et al. Innovative Methods of Hospital Disinfection in Prevention of Healthcare-Associated Infections. Curr Treat Options Infect Dis 10, 65–77 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40506-018-0153-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40506-018-0153-0

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