Nester likes to audit her OR
staff and housekeeping on a
quarterly basis. She chooses
10 random surfaces through-
out the facility and mostly
focuses on high-touch areas.
She utilizes Adenosine
triphosphate (ATP) testing,
which detects and measures
biological matter on surfaces,
and looks for any counts
above 500. "We took an aver-
age of our counts after clean-
ing several times to come up
with our baseline," she says.
All of the ATP testing
devices have different guide-
lines on how to set your
baseline and what the
counts mean, so you'll have
to refer to the instructions for use if you choose this as your assess-
ment method.
Ms. Holder spot-checks the performance of her OR turnover crews 1
to 2 times a month. Her facility has looked into using fluorescent
markers and UV lights to assess their surface disinfection protocols,
but she finds that observing the turnover team and visual inspections
are good indicators of the quality of your cleaning practices.
"You have to do a risk-cost assessment for your facility and see if it
warrants the investment in something like fluorescent markers and
3 6 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A y 2 0 1 8
• SPOT CHECKS Keep staff on their toes by testing the cleanliness of
several high-touch items, such as IV poles.
Stephanie
Nester,
RN
