Feasibility of Routinely Using Hydrogen Peroxide Vapor to Decontaminate Rooms in a Busy United States Hospital

Abstract

During a 22-month period at a 500-bed teaching hospital, 1,565 rooms that had housed patients infected with multidrug-resistant pathogens were decontaminated using hydrogen peroxide vapor. Hydrogen peroxide vapor decontamination required a mean time of 2 hours and 20 minutes, compared with 32 minutes for conventional cleaning. Despite the greater time required for decontamination, hydrogen peroxide vapor decontamination of selected patient rooms is feasible in a busy hospital with a mean occupancy rate of 94%.

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

“…Effective HP disinfection may take several hours to complete a full cycle, which contrasts with the time taken for traditional discharge cleaning (197). Delivering HP decontamination may prove difficult in a hospital running at 100% bed occupancy, since any restrictions in bed turnover time could easily have an impact on admission capacity (197,198). Rooms cannot be easily closed in today's crowded hospitals, let alone multibed bays, complete wards, or specialist units offering 24-h emergency care.…”

The role of ‘no-touch’ automated room disinfection systems in infection prevention and control

“…One study recorded the time taken for each stage of the HPV room disinfection process. 123 Pre-cleaning of all surfaces in the room using detergent took a median of 24 min. The time taken for precleaning should be accounted for to obtain an accurate NTD room disinfection process time.…”

Disinfectants used for environmental disinfection and new room decontamination technology

“…40 However, HP system decontamination was shown to require more than 4-times longer to complete than conventional cleaning, thus resulting in prolonged bed turn-over time. 41 …”