5 Steps to Prevent Surface-Related Infections

A real-world patient care room – full of critical furnishings, equipment, and tools – comprises hundreds of different surface materials. Unfortunately, the reality is that most of these surfaces cannot be effectively disinfected and harbor microbes that cause deadly infections.

In her webinar, Deadly Microbes Lurking on Healthcare Surfaces, HSI founder and executive director Linda Lybert explained why it is challenging to eliminate surface-related pathogens from the healthcare environment without making significant changes. How do we stop this? Through collaboration, testing, and standards. We need to bring together all the different groups working on surfaces to improve the situation: healthcare professionals, raw materials manufacturers, product manufacturers, design engineers, researchers, and testing laboratories.

Drive change! Here are five steps healthcare professionals can take right now to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs):

1. Create a single point of contact

Designate a single point of contact within your healthcare organization to facilitate collaboration between manufacturers and healthcare professionals and to communicate important matters to all parties. This contact is typically a value analysis professional.

2. Create purchasing guidelines to check surface safety

Create surface safety guidelines for product reviews before purchase and usage checklists for healthcare-selected teams within the healthcare setting to provide product value analysis professionals with the information they need to make informed purchases.

3. Question all surfaces in your facility

Ask hard questions at the design, review, and evaluation stage of any equipment, material, device, or surface used in the facility. Ask questions about cleaning and disinfection compatibility.

4. Ask for validation from manufacturers

Ask your manufacturer for validation of testing to ensure products can be effectively cleaned and disinfected without damage using EPA registered hospital-grade disinfectants. Verify that the test methods used mimicked real-world scenarios and are not just laboratory tests that provide only minimal information.

5. Educate healthcare professionals on surface disinfection

Ask your medical device suppliers to provide maintenance training and cleaning and disinfection review for healthcare professionals.

Surface Validation Checklist

Use the following checklist to determine if a surface material or product can be safely cleaned and disinfected in your healthcare facility.

• Do you have scientific testing data that validates disinfection testing was done?
• • Are you able to use the disinfectants that are recommended in your infection prevention guidelines for cleaning and disinfection in your facility?
  • What test methods were used?
  • What microbes were used for testing?
  • Were surfaces evaluated for damage at a microscopic level? What was used for this evaluation?
  • Were surfaces tested for compatibility with UV and any other no-touch disinfection technology?
• Have all categories of EPA-registered disinfectants been tested, and are the surfaces compatible? (Other testing will need to be done using specific proprietary disinfectant chemistries.)
• Review instructions for use (IFUs). Do they support infection prevention guidelines within your facility?
• Review care and maintenance documents. Do they provide more detail for cleaning and disinfecting than the IFU? Do they conflict with one another?
• Review manufacturer warnings.
• Review the warranties.
• Review the cleaning and disinfectant supplies being used within your facility. Are they compatible with the surface material being disinfected?

Thank you for your interest in reducing preventable infections!

Surface contamination is a foundational public health issue that must be addressed to reduce the transmission of HAIs.

For more on this issue:

• Watch and share our webinar: Deadly Microbes Lurking on Healthcare Surfaces
• Learn more about surface disinfection compatibility
• Read our case study: Surface disinfection incompatibility with medical devices creates potential patient risks

Other ways to get involved:

• Become an HSI member
• Become a corporate sponsor
• Donate to HSI