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Category: HAI: Disinfection/Sterilization & Environmental Infection Prevention

Poster Session: HAI: Disinfection/Sterilization & Environmental Infection Prevention

821 - Portable Medical Equipment Disinfection: How often does it occur?

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Co-Author(s)

Chetan Jinadatha

Chief, Infectious Diseases Section
Central Texas Veterans Health Care System
Temple, Texas
Disclosure: AHRQ (Research Grant or Support)Department of Veterans Affairs (Other Financial or Material Support, Owner: Department of Veterans Affairs. Licensed to: Xenex Disinfection System, San Antonio, TX)Inventor (Other Financial or Material Support, Methods for organizing the disinfection of one or more items contaminated with biological agents)NiH/NINR (Research Grant or Support)NSF (Research Grant or Support)Xenex Healthcare Services (Research Grant or Support)

Presenting Author(s)

JulieAnn Martel

Research Assistant
Central Texas Veterans Health Care System
Temple, Texas
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

Co-Author(s)

Patrick Crowley

Medical Resident
Baylor Scott & White Hospital
Temple, TX
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Hector E. Ramirez

Infectious Disease Fellow
Baylor Scott & White Hospital
Temple, Texas
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
JC

John David. Coppin

Biostatistician
Central Texas Veterans Health Care System
Temple, Texas
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
MS

Mark Stibich

Co-Founder of Xenex Germ-Zapping Robots
Xenex Germ-Zapping Robots
San Antonio, Texas
Disclosure: Xenex Germ-Zapping Robots (Board Member, Grant/Research Support)
SS

Sarah Simmons

Senior Director of Science
Xenex Disinfection Services
San Antonio, Texas
Disclosure: Xenex Disinfection Services (Employee, Shareholder)
Piyali Chatterjee

Senior Research Scientist
Central Texas Veterans Health Care System
Temple, Texas
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Hosoon Choi

Senior Research Scientist
Central Texas Veterans Health Care System
Temple, Texas
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
DP

Deborah G. Passey

Researcher
NA
Salt Lake City, Utah
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
MW

Marjory D. Williams

Associate Chief Nurse Research
CTVHCS
Temple, Texas
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

Background: Portable Medical Equipment (PME) are routinely used by healthcare workers (HCWs). Transmission of healthcare-acquired infections has been attributed to PME. Our institution policy requires at least once daily PME disinfection. Automated tracking of disinfection events by Disinfection Tracking System (DTS) makes routine monitoring possible. We tested the device to see if it could provide accurate information about disinfection practices and patterns, as well as be used to accurately monitor compliance with policy.

Methods: Data obtained from DTS devices on PME from 2 acute care wards over a 25-day period was obtained. DTS devices record disinfection events and are automatically stored for monitoring. DTS was placed on 10 computer-on-wheels (COWs) and 5 vitals machine (VMs) on both the wards. One ward received DTS with “Screen-on” feedback displaying the time since last disinfection event, and one unit had no display on the screen (screen-off). The number of recorded events was summed over the 25-day period and sorted by time of day to determine the pattern of events over a typical 24-hour period. Minute “0” indicates start of each monitoring period in a 24-hour cycle and corresponds to 12 midnight (Figure 1).

Results: A total of 421 moisture events were recorded for the screen-on and 345 for the screen-off, during the 25-day implementation period. The highest number of events occurred between 6am and 7am, with 69 moisture events recorded in the screen-on group and 75 events were recorded for the screen-off group. Further, 37 events were recorded in the screen-on group and 43 events in the screen-off group between 2pm and 3pm. Between 6pm and 7pm the screen-on group showed 52 moisture events and 32 events for the screen-off group. Figures 1 shows the three peaks corresponding with a spike in disinfection events.

Conclusion: The pattern of disinfection events over 24 hours demonstrate that most events occurred regularly at certain times in the day. These time points correspond with higher volumes of disinfection happening at the beginning of shift changes for nursing. It also demonstrated that disinfection rates were higher than the policy recommended once a day PME disinfection. DTS has the potential to continuously record & report data related of disinfection events on PME in healthcare settings.