priate personal protective equipment (PPE)
and hand washing before and after wearing
gloves. Here's advice on deploying the prop-
er cleaning agents to eradicate potentially
infective agents on your surfaces.
1. Know your bugs
What is it you are trying to kill? Are you a GI center with a high proba-
bility of Clostridium difficile (C. diff) and Eschericia coli (E. coli)?
Are you doing trauma cases where it is routine to have blood or irriga-
tion fluid on the floor and surrounding noncritical equipment (beds,
IV poles, ring stands, stretchers, anesthesia carts … the list goes on
and on)? Do you have a high incidence of patients with methicillin-
resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant
Enterococcus (VRE), or are you doing joint replacements at your facil-
ity and are concerned about preventing prosthesis-related infections?
Are viruses a concern? Are you just concerned in general with doing
the best job possible of surface disinfection between cases in the
shortest amount of time and have no idea what might be lurking on
your surfaces?
Knowing what the probability is of certain bugs that might be more
prevalent in your operating rooms, procedure rooms and recovery
rooms can help make the decision of which EPA-registered disinfec-
tant or disinfectants you should use. Using one "best" disinfectant
might make staff training, compliance and proper usage better versus
using multiple agents for different areas.
2. Know your disinfectant kill times
Read the label! Looking at the most common disinfectants in use today
(chlorine and chlorine compounds, hydrogen peroxide, quaternary
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 7 1
For a list of products registered
by the EPA as effective against
common pathogens,
visit osmag.net/7FgwWQ.
