2 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7
F
our years ago,
we reviewed
our approach
to operating room
turnovers as a strategy
to prevent surgical site
infections. Here's what
we found: Our envi-
ronmental cleaning
staff would sometimes
hesitate at the OR
door, almost as if they
were thinking: Where do I start? After assessing the normal work
flow and cleaning effectiveness of our turnover team, we discovered
that the whole cleaning process could be random and a little chaotic,
so we saw an opportunity to standardize the process by
creating 5 distinct cleaning zones .
The premise behind zone cleaning is that you can walk into even the
busiest post-orthopedics OR and take a uniform approach to cleaning
it from top to bottom. If you follow the protocol as prescribed, you
should have confidence that the room has been completely disinfec-
ted at the turnover's conclusion. You're using the same list of
approved cleaning solutions as before; the only significant change is
how you approach the room, because you're essentially dividing the
space into manageable, clearly defined areas, or zones. Now, when
our turnover team enters an OR, they break it down into the follow-
ing:
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
Zone Cleaning Your ORs During Turnover
• FIVE EASY PIECES Memorial Hermann's turnover crew divides each OR into 5 dis-
tinct zones. A "zone captain" directs the cleaning process from start to finish.
Memorial
Hermann
Health
System
Ideas Work
That