Improving hospital cleaning and disinfection

This post shares the findings of a recent study exploring improving hospital cleaning and disinfection through streamlining product and enhanced training. A team working in Lanarkshire, the third largest health board in Scotland, has recently published a study evaluating the impact of an intervention to improve hospital cleaning and disinfection through the implementation of pre-impregnated wipes combined…

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The role of the environmental hygiene nurse in preventing HCAI

An interesting article published recently in Infection Prevention in Practice illustrates the potential for a dedicated nursing role focussed on environmental hygiene to prevent HCAI. The study was performed in a 32-bed general ICU in Argentina. The intervention was the introduction of a novel post: the “Hospital environmental hygiene nurse”. This post was a full-time post dedicated to direct…

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Choosing the right disinfectant wipe

There is a wide range of options when choosing the most appropriate disinfectant wipe. The University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB), that prompted this series, evidenced that switching from one disinfectant wipe strategy to a more effective one resulted in improved patient outcomes. Several factors influence the choice of wipe: intended application, range of microbial efficacy, staff acceptability and cost.The key consideration when selecting a…

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The biofilm challenge for cleaning, disinfection, and sterilisation

In the AJIC special issue on ‘Disinfection, sterilization, and antisepsis’, there is a helpful State-of-the-Science mini-review on the importance of biofilms in medical device reprocessing and healthcare surface disinfection. The review covers the growing appreciation that biofilms present a tough challenging to cleaning, disinfection, and sterilisation attempts for both medical devices and surfaces in healthcare settings. The review draws…

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