19. True or false? Surface disinfection isn't as important to your
facility's infection prevention efforts as hand hygiene compliance is.
a. true b. false
Answer: b. Microbes can survive for long periods of time on OR sur-
faces. Biofilms can form on dry surfaces as well as wet ones. And the
hands of your perioperative team members provide convenient trans-
portation between a bed rail or door handle and a patient's skin.
20. True or false? We don't know which
method of surface disinfection works best.
a. true b. false
Answer: a. Reviewing 80 surface disinfection studies published in the
medical literature between 1998 and 2014, researchers from the
University of Pennsylvania found few qualitative comparisons of
cleaning methods or resulting surface cleanliness. Many of the stud-
ies (osmag.net/j8cNTR) simply charted a single product's before-
and-after levels of contamination. Researchers suggested further
research was necessary to prioritize surfaces to be disinfected, and
to determine which agents and methods are most effective.
OSM
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