Outpatient Surgery Magazine

The Secret of Gritflowness - October 2020 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/1295122

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 30 of 75

W ith public health experts sounding the alarm about the likelihood of a second COVID-19 spike this winter in the midst of flu season, whole room disinfection technologies are becoming more appealing because manual cleaning alone simply isn't an effective enough way to fully clean and disinfect the OR. "Studies have shown that about 50% of surfaces in hospitals that need to be cleaned are not," says Luci Perri, RN, BSN, MSN, MPH, CIC, FAPIC, CSPDT, the owner and president of Infection Control Results, a consulting company located in Charlotte, N.C. "If the surfaces are not properly cleaned and disinfected, you have a greater likelihood of a healthcare worker picking up organisms off the surface and poten- tially transferring them to a patient." O C T O B E R 2 0 2 0 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y . N E T • 3 1 Whole Room Disinfection Makes a Whole Lotta Sense Use high-tech systems to supplement the manual cleaning of high-touch surfaces. Jared Bilski | Managing Editor The reasons for a lack of adequate surface dis- infection range from a variability in cleaning tactics among environ- mental services staff to historically high turnover in those positions, says Ms. Perri. Of course, in many smaller, free-stand- ing ASCs, nursing staff clean ORs between cases. The expanded safety protocols stem- ming from the pandemic have stretched staff thin, making it more difficult for them to follow prop- er surface disinfection and cleaning protocols. That's where mobile ultraviolet-C (UV-C) devices and hydrogen per- oxide vapor (HPV) sys- tems come in. These sys- tems can eliminate an array of bacteria, viruses (such as COVID-19) and fungi, includ- ing multidrug-resistant organ- isms. Both of these options have their advantages and their disad- vantages, according to Ms. Perri. Let's look at the pros and cons of each. • UV-C devices. Mobile UV-C devices are wheeled into an OR and emit short-frequency UV-C light that effectively breaks up the bacterial DNA in that space. UV-C SPOT CHECK Hardworking staff members don't always hit every inch of surfaces during fast-paced room turnovers. Pamela Bevelhymer, RN, BSN, CNOR

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Outpatient Surgery Magazine - The Secret of Gritflowness - October 2020 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine