Importance of environmental decontamination--a critical view

A modified ATP benchmark for evaluating the cleaning of some hospital environmental surfaces

Hospital cleaning continues to attract patient, media and political attention. In the UK it is still primarily assessed via visual inspection, which can be misleading. Calls have therefore been made for a more objective approach to assessing surface cleanliness. To improve the management of hospital cleaning the use of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in combination with microbiological analysis has been proposed, with a general ATP benchmark value of 500 relative light units (RLU) for one combination of test and equipment. In this study, the same test combination was used to assess cleaning effectiveness in a 1300-bed teaching hospital after routine and modified cleaning protocols. Based upon the ATP results a revised stricter pass/fail benchmark of 250 RLU is proposed for the range of surfaces used in this study. This was routinely achieved using modified best practice cleaning procedures which also gave reduced surface counts with, for example, aerobic colony counts reduced from >100 to <2.5 cfu/cm(2), and counts of Staphylococcus aureus reduced from up to 2.5 to <1 cfu/cm(2) (95% of the time). Benchmarking is linked to incremental quality improvements and both the original suggestion of 500 RLU and the revised figure of 250 RLU can be used by hospitals as part of this process. They can also be used in the assessment of novel cleaning methods, such as steam cleaning and microfibre cloths, which have potential use in the National Health Service.

Enteric outbreaks in long-term care facilities and recommendations for prevention: a review

Outbreaks of enteric illness in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) were reviewed to identify preventative recommendations. Systematic review methodology identified outbreak reports of gastrointestinal illness in LTCFs either published or that occurred from January 1997 to June 2007. The inclusion criteria captured 75 outbreaks; 23 (31%) associated with bacterial agents and 52 (69%) with viral agents. Transmission was mainly foodborne (52%) for those of bacterial origin and person-to-person (71%) for viral outbreaks. Norovirus infection was associated with 58% of hospitalizations. Sixty deaths were reported, about half from Salmonella infections. Recommendations for foodborne outbreaks emphasized appropriate sourcing and preparation of eggs, staff training, and temperature control during food preparation. Recommendations from outbreaks transmitted person-to-person centred on controlling residents' movements, effective environmental cleaning and disinfection, cancelling social events and restricting visitors, excluding ill staff, encouraging effective hand hygiene, and preventing cross-contamination through gloving and gowning. In none of the 75 published outbreak reports were the suggested recommendations evaluated for effectiveness in controlling the outbreak. Applied research of this type could greatly help in the acceptance of prevention and control strategies.