One consistency within the healthcare sector is that there
are too few rooms, and when one does becomes available the urgency to have it
cleaned and ready to put back into circulation is enormous. Why?
Well, there are also targets to meet with respect to admitting patients,
and as always...there are patients who need it.
are too few rooms, and when one does becomes available the urgency to have it
cleaned and ready to put back into circulation is enormous. Why?
Well, there are also targets to meet with respect to admitting patients,
and as always...there are patients who need it.
The question that is posed time and time again is how long
does it take to clean a room? In this
day and age, the faster we can clean a room the faster we can fill it. This issue with focusing on how fast a room
can be turned around is similar to our question regarding how to find the
fastest disinfectant with the most claims.
Something has to be given up. For
disinfectants, that generally means we sacrifice safety for efficacy and
contact time. For cleaning, it generally
means corners inevitably get cut and that can be deadly. Cutting corners with cleaning means that
surfaces get missed, and we all know if we do not clean a surface, bugs are
left behind leaving the room a danger zone for the next patient.
does it take to clean a room? In this
day and age, the faster we can clean a room the faster we can fill it. This issue with focusing on how fast a room
can be turned around is similar to our question regarding how to find the
fastest disinfectant with the most claims.
Something has to be given up. For
disinfectants, that generally means we sacrifice safety for efficacy and
contact time. For cleaning, it generally
means corners inevitably get cut and that can be deadly. Cutting corners with cleaning means that
surfaces get missed, and we all know if we do not clean a surface, bugs are
left behind leaving the room a danger zone for the next patient.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that time is money. But I also know that like a good wine, things
get better with time and cleaning is one of the things in life that with the
more time you have, the better the end result will be. It was interesting then to see a research
poster at last week’s IPAC-Canada conference by a group of researchers from
Queen’s University, the Journal of Environmental Management and Facility
Hygiene and the Canadian Association of Environmental Management focusing on
Patient Room Cleaning Times in Canadian Acute Care Hospitals. As the researchers rightly stated, current
bench marks are not specific when it comes to the types of rooms and their
conditions (e.g. discharge clean? isolation? private? semi-private?). The aim
of their study was to determine if and what the benchmarks for terminal and
daily routine cleaning would be or should be.
get better with time and cleaning is one of the things in life that with the
more time you have, the better the end result will be. It was interesting then to see a research
poster at last week’s IPAC-Canada conference by a group of researchers from
Queen’s University, the Journal of Environmental Management and Facility
Hygiene and the Canadian Association of Environmental Management focusing on
Patient Room Cleaning Times in Canadian Acute Care Hospitals. As the researchers rightly stated, current
bench marks are not specific when it comes to the types of rooms and their
conditions (e.g. discharge clean? isolation? private? semi-private?). The aim
of their study was to determine if and what the benchmarks for terminal and
daily routine cleaning would be or should be.
What was interesting to me was how the times were
determined. Nearly 100% of the
respondents relied on past experience while only 53% of these same sites used
time and motion studies. When looking at
the time to perform daily cleaning, as expected, the larger the room (e.g. the
number of beds) the more time it took and as the level of infection prevention
precautions increased (e.g. a MRSA vs a C. diff room) the more time it took to
clean. The average time for a daily
clean single patient room was 17 minutes while a C.diff patient room with 4
beds was 67 minutes (37 minutes for a single bed). A similar story unfolded for terminal or
discharge room cleaning.
determined. Nearly 100% of the
respondents relied on past experience while only 53% of these same sites used
time and motion studies. When looking at
the time to perform daily cleaning, as expected, the larger the room (e.g. the
number of beds) the more time it took and as the level of infection prevention
precautions increased (e.g. a MRSA vs a C. diff room) the more time it took to
clean. The average time for a daily
clean single patient room was 17 minutes while a C.diff patient room with 4
beds was 67 minutes (37 minutes for a single bed). A similar story unfolded for terminal or
discharge room cleaning.
Certainly, this is the most comprehensive study to date in
terms of looking at the average time we take to clean a room, but as the
researchers so rightly concluded, do we know if these times ensure that the
rooms are adequately cleaned? Do we know
if using these times the surfaces are free and clear of pathogens and safe for
the next patient? We do not. It does however, give us the perfect step off
for additional work where we use these times to clean our room and then examine
if the room is in fact clean and free of pathogens.
terms of looking at the average time we take to clean a room, but as the
researchers so rightly concluded, do we know if these times ensure that the
rooms are adequately cleaned? Do we know
if using these times the surfaces are free and clear of pathogens and safe for
the next patient? We do not. It does however, give us the perfect step off
for additional work where we use these times to clean our room and then examine
if the room is in fact clean and free of pathogens.
As I said, I understand that time is money and if we can
improve upon cleaning times we can turn over rooms faster, and perhaps reduce
the manpower needed to clean our facilities and get the next patient in so we
can charge for that room. But I caution
that thought and stress the fact that we need to ensure that we are doing
what’s right for the patient and our staff.
What if the workload changes?
More discharge rooms or more isolation rooms means more time. Is there a buffer we should also be looking
at? For example, is there a tipping
point where staff cut corners to speed up their cleaning if the number of
isolation rooms or discharge rooms they have increases? I hope we’ll look into that too!
improve upon cleaning times we can turn over rooms faster, and perhaps reduce
the manpower needed to clean our facilities and get the next patient in so we
can charge for that room. But I caution
that thought and stress the fact that we need to ensure that we are doing
what’s right for the patient and our staff.
What if the workload changes?
More discharge rooms or more isolation rooms means more time. Is there a buffer we should also be looking
at? For example, is there a tipping
point where staff cut corners to speed up their cleaning if the number of
isolation rooms or discharge rooms they have increases? I hope we’ll look into that too!
Bugging Off!
Nicole
