Daily Disinfection of the Hospital Room and Non-critical Items: Barriers and Practical Approaches

Educational interventions to improve compliance with disinfection practices of noncritical portable medical equipment: A systematic review

OBJECTIVE

To describe educational interventions that have been implemented in healthcare settings to increase the compliance of healthcare personnel (HCP) with cleaning and disinfection of noncritical portable medical equipment (PME) requiring low-level disinfection (LLD).

DESIGN

Systematic review.

METHODS

Studies evaluating interventions for improving LLD practices in settings with HCP, including healthcare students and trainees, were eligible for inclusion.

RESULTS

In total, 1,493 abstracts were identified and 1,416 were excluded, resulting in 77 studies that underwent full text review. Among these, 68 were further excluded due to study design, setting, or intervention. Finally, 9 full-text studies were extracted; 1 study was excluded during the critical appraisal process, leaving 8 studies. Various forms of interventions were implemented in the studies, including luminescence, surveillance of contamination with feedback, visual signage, enhanced training, and improved accessibility of LLD supplies. Of the 8 included studies, 4 studies reported successes in improving LLD practices among HCP.

CONCLUSIONS

The available literature was limited, indicating the need for additional research on pedagogical methods to improve LLD practices. Use of visual indicators of contamination and multifaceted interventions improved LLD practice by HCP.

Rapid disinfection of radiology treatment rooms using an autonomous ultraviolet germicidal irradiation robot

BACKGROUND

Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) technologies have emerged as a promising adjunct to manual cleaning, however, their potential to shorten cleaning times remains unexplored.

METHODS

A <10-minute disinfection procedure was developed using a robotic UVGI platform. The efficacy and time to perform the UVGI procedure in a CT scan treatment room was compared with current protocols involving manual disinfection using biocides. For each intervention, environmental samples were taken at 12 locations in the room before and after disinfection on seven distinct occasions.

RESULTS

The mean UVC dose at each sample location was found to be 13.01 ± 4.36 mJ/cm², which exceeded published UVC thresholds for achieving log reductions of many common pathogens. Significant reductions in microbial burden were measured after both UVGI (P≤.001) and manual cleaning (P≤.05) conditions, with the UVGI procedure revealing the largest effect size (r = 0.603).

DISCUSSION

These results support the hypothesis that automated deployments of UVGI technology can lead to germicidal performance that is comparable with, and potentially better than, current manual cleaning practices.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings provide early evidence that the incorporation of automated UVGI procedures into cleaning workflow could reduce turnaround times in radiology, and potentially other hospital settings.