machine; the OR
tables top to bottom,
including the wheels if
soiled; and the back
door.
"The goal of imple-
menting the zone sys-
tem of room turnovers
was to have more of a
consistent process,"
says Jason
Bainbridge, RN, BSN,
MBA, patient care manager/surgery center at Regina Hospital, part of
Allina Health.
As soon as the patient is out of the room, a staffer lays disinfectant
wipes on everything that needs to be cleaned. If a staffer walks in and
sees the wipe on something, that confirms the task has yet to be com-
pleted.
"When anybody walks into a room, they know what's not done. That
saved us some minutes on room turnover," says Mr. Bainbridge.
In the first quarter of 2018, the average room turnover time at
Regina Hospital was 22.1 minutes. After implementing the zones, the
average turnover time had dropped to 19.3 minutes by the third quar-
ter of 2018.
2. Know your surface disinfectants
The kill times of the surface disinfectants you use greatly impact
turnover times.
"You need to know what bacteria it's killing and if it's going to kill
things properly and in a timely manner," says Kelly Norman, RN,
7 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9
• DIVIDE AND CONQUER The staff at Regina Hospital in Hastings, Minn., divides
the OR into assigned cleaning zones to have more consistent and efficient room
turnovers.
Jason
Bainbridge,
RN,
BSN,
MBA,
Regina
Hospital
