A validation experiment: Utilizing ultraviolet light to disinfect high use nursing equipment.

IF 3.8 3区医学 Q2 INFECTIOUS DISEASES American journal of infection control Pub Date : 2024-12-31 DOI:10.1016/j.ajic.2024.12.017

Gordon F West

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Abstract

Background: Some medical equipment travels across patient rooms. Nursing and environmental services staff may not always communicate cleaning responsibilities. The purpose of this study was to identify if a portable UV-C tent utilized with a UV-C device (Xenex LightStrike Robot) can effectively disinfect high use equipment.

Methods: Health care equipment were pre-swabbed to determine colony forming units (CFUs). Following UV-C disinfection, a post swab was completed. Standard microbiology techniques were utilized to sample, plate, and count CFUs from these sampled items.

Results: Samples (n=134) had a significant reduction in contamination (17.08 CFUs vs 0.45 CFUs, P<.05) following UV-C treatment. This near elimination of CFUs highlights the effectiveness of UV-C to disinfect high touch surfaces.

Discussion: More work is needed to determine optimal cleaning practices. At the same time, current cleaning practices are sometimes ineffective, additional steps such as UV-C can assist in ensuring adequate disinfection of equipment.

Conclusions: It is important that nurses take steps to break the chain of infection while providing patient care. Policies regarding infection control need to address high touch items and include methods such as the UV-C tent utilized in this study to ensure these items are disinfected reducing the risk of health care associated infections.

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利用紫外线对高使用率护理设备进行消毒的验证实验。

背景：医护人员使用的设备可以从一个病房移动到另一个病房。此外，护理和环境服务人员可能并不总是就清洁问题清楚地沟通。本研究的目的是确定与UV-C装置（Xenex®LightStrike™Robot）一起使用的便携式UV-C帐篷是否可以有效地消毒高使用率设备。方法：对医疗器械进行预拭子检测菌落形成单位（cfu）。在UV-C消毒后，完成后拭子拭子。使用标准微生物学技术对这些样品进行取样、平板和计数。结果：样品（n=134）的污染显著减少（17.08 CFUs vs 0.45 CFUs, p）。讨论：需要做更多的工作来确定这些物品的最佳清洁方法，以防止医疗相关感染。与此同时，研究表明，目前的清洁做法是无效的，需要改变以改善患者的治疗效果。结论：护士在提供患者护理时采取措施打破感染链是很重要的。有关感染控制的政策需要关注这些高接触物品，并包括本研究中使用的UV-C帐篷等方法，以确保这些物品得到消毒，降低与医疗保健相关的感染风险。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

American journal of infection control 医学-传染病学

CiteScore

7.40

自引率

4.10%

发文量

479

审稿时长

24 days

期刊介绍： AJIC covers key topics and issues in infection control and epidemiology. Infection control professionals, including physicians, nurses, and epidemiologists, rely on AJIC for peer-reviewed articles covering clinical topics as well as original research. As the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC)

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