A microbiological evaluation of hospital cleaning methods

Abstract

Hospital hygiene may be associated with hospital-acquired infection. This study evaluated four hospital cleaning methods: 'mop and vacuum', 'spray clean' and 'wet scrub' for floors, and one steam cleaning method for curtains. A standardised microbiological screening method was used to sample the environment before and after cleaning in order to quantify total viable counts as well as identify specific organisms. The results showed that all floor cleaning methods reduced the overall microbial load, although high counts and bacterial pathogens occasionally persisted despite cleaning. Spray cleaning gave marginally better results than traditional mopping and vacuuming. Wet scrubbing significantly reduced levels of coagulase-positive staphylococci (p = 0.03), which, in combination with routine methods, produced an effect that persisted for at least a week. Steam cleaning of curtains also reduced microbial counts (p = 0.08), but had little effect on Staphylococcus aureus and other potential pathogens. These results might help managers assess the costs of different cleaning methods against potential infection control benefits in a hospital.

Measuring the effect of enhanced cleaning in a UK hospital: a prospective cross-over study

“…Routine ward cleaning continued as usual, including regular quality control audits on environmental cleaning [14]. Routine cleaning comprised 2 to 3 hours each morning, concentrating on floors and bathroom facilities.…”

Controlling Hospital-Acquired Infection: Focus on the Role of the Environment and New Technologies for Decontamination

“…Scrubbing machines achieve a high standard of cleanliness for floors and are often used for cleaning operating theaters on a routine basis (125). There is a longer-term beneficial microbiological effect seen after using these machines, but they tend to be cumbersome as well as labor-intensive (125).…”

“…This has implications for the length of time that surface organisms are exposed to applied steam. A previous study showed that steam cleaning of curtains on a disused ward proved difficult to implement because there was no indication which areas had received sufficient steam exposure, and pathogens were recovered before and after the process (125).…”

“…Over 80% of the bacterial load on hospital floors can be removed by detergent-based cleaning only (125) (122). Disinfectants can be used for floors in high-risk clinical areas, although there is no evidence that any microbial reduction persists for substantially longer periods than that achieved by detergent alone (26,27).…”

Comparison between reduced susceptibility to disinfectants and multidrug resistance among hospital isolates of pseudomonas aeruginosa and staphylococcus aureus in bangladesh

“…Through cleansing of floors and walls may be enough in less important regions, despite the fact that a few research endorse using a disinfectant in floor cleansing (31,32). Although cleaning may additionally dispose of a wide variety of bacteria but the microorganisms surviving Here, for savlon 1 unit is equal 10, for herpic 1 unit is equal 4, for antibiotics 10 units is equal 1.…”