Communicating the Importance of Environmental Hygiene to Healthcare Workers
By Kelly M. Pyrek at Infection Control Today
Numerous studies have demonstrated that contaminated environmental surfaces in healthcare facilities can contribute to the transmission of infectious pathogens and that the cleaning and disinfection of these high-touch surfaces has been suboptimal.
As Carling, et al. (2008) notes, “It has now been well documented that pathogens such as methicillin‐susceptible S. aureus, MRSA and VRE, are readily transmitted from environmental surfaces to healthcare workers’ hands.
Recently, the link between environmental contamination and patient acquisition has been more convincingly demonstrated.
Epidemiologic studies have shown that patients admitted to rooms previously occupied by individuals infected or colonized with MRSA, VRE or Acinetobacter baumanii are at significant risk of acquiring these organisms from previously contaminated environmental sites.”
“There is no doubt in my mind that contamination of the environment (surfaces in patient care areas and mobile medical equipment) play a major role in the transmission of potential pathogens,” says Michael Phillips, MD, the hospital epidemiologist at New York University Langone Medical Center.
“There are well-designed studies which show patients who occupy the bed of a patient previously infected with a resistant pathogen are at greater risk of acquiring that pathogen. The key to convincing healthcare workers of the importance of the environment is data – posting unit or service specific rates of C. difficile infections, for example.”
“There is no debate as to the role that contaminated surfaces play in the transmission of MDROs in the healthcare delivery setting,” says Irena L. Kenneley, PhD, APRN-BC, CIC, assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.
“There are many compelling studies that point to an environmental cause in outbreak situations, but one study regarding the impact of environmental MRSA and VRE contamination was conducted that really underscores the role of contaminated fomites (Huang, Datta and Platt, 2006).
In this study it was found that after retrospective review of 10,000 ICU patients they found patients had significantly higher risk for acquiring MRSA or VRE if the most recent previous occupant of the same room had tested positive for the organisms. These results (and numerous other studies) point directly to an environmental reservoir and provide an explanation for transmission, the links to the chain of infection, and healthcare-associated infection.”
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