A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 6 9
the technology, which is still very new to most people. Everyone
who'll use it needs to feel comfortable with both the operation and
the safety features.
3. If your goal is to disinfect every room in your facility, plan to
do it at the end of the day as an adjunct to terminal cleaning.
However, if you have a slower day and can spare 10 or 20 min-
utes, that can be enough time to run the machine in a given room.
Manufacturers are working on making machines that cycle faster,
so between-case disinfection may soon be feasible, but busy facil-
ities that depend on super-fast turnovers will still probably need
to hold off until day's end.
4. Pre-cleaning remains vital. You can't penetrate protein mate-
rial with any chemical or UV lights without removing the coating
material first. Staff need to perform the actual physical cleaning
with a wet cloth or mop head, and they need to wipe blood and
bodily fluids off surfaces before they begin to disinfect.
5. It makes sense to concentrate, as hospitals do, on rooms that
have housed patients with multidrug-resistant organisms, like C.
diff, CRE and MRSA, and to disinfect them as soon as patients are
discharged. C. diff spores, in particular, can survive for many
months.
6. If you're having outbreaks with the 3 most common gram-
negative organisms that can contaminate the environment —
Escherichia, Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter — bring a machine
in, at least on a trial basis, and see if it makes a difference.
— Phenelle Segal, RN, CIC, FAPIC
Ms. Segal (info@iccs-home.com) is the founder and president of Infection
Control Consulting Services in Delray Beach, Fla.
