If you have a car and live in an area where snow is a winter
fact, you likely have winter tires; and with spring arriving, you’ve likely
been to your mechanic to have your winter tires swapped out for your summer
tires. You may also have timed the tire
change with a LOF (Lube-Oil-Filter)
and maybe changed out your windshield wipers.
We understand that when we drive a car we need to do more than just fill
it up with gas. Many of us are also probably
pretty good at our own preventative maintenance plan for our health and well-being with annual physicals, eye checkups, working out, eating and sleeping
right and if you are like me, your preventative maintenance plan also includes
hair appointments, manicures and pedicures!
I would hazard a guess that most of us recognize that
virtually any piece of equipment we use, in order to be effective at our jobs,
also needs preventative
maintenance. We know that with
patient care equipment or other medical equipment this is an important aspect
of protecting the lives of our patients.
How many of you consider the dilution systems we use to dilute
concentrated surface disinfectants or the associated test strips used to
validate the dilution (assuming your facility uses test strips)? The unfortunate truth is that while we now
acknowledge that compliance in cleaning and achieving the contact time as
indicated on the label in order to ensure disinfection occurs are important, we
do not stop to think of other factors that may impact the effectiveness of our
chosen disinfectant.
The one area that we often overlook is the preventative
maintenance required to ensure the dilution systems that we rely on to properly
dilute the disinfectants are working properly.
Over the course of my career in Healthcare, it never ceases to amaze me
that many facilities still fail to consider this. While I will not name facilities I can say
that I have been in more than my fair share of facilities helping brainstorm
why a disinfectant seems to be failing to support the infection control program. When I ask when the last time the dilution
system was serviced and / or validation had been done to ensure it was diluting
properly I often get blank stares….
The importance of preventative maintenance on
dilution systems is not just to ensure that the product dilutes at the
correct concentration to kill the pathogens we’re concerned with, but to also
ensure that it is diluting correctly so that the product is safe to
handle. Case in point is a call recently
received from a facility who realized the product they were using seemed
foamier than normal and a few concerns with skin irritation had been
noted. When looking at the dilution
system they found there was no tip on the syphoning tube meaning more product
than needed was being used. When asked
about the use of test strips the answer was that the strips were not changing
colour. When asked about the expiry date
on the test strips it was determined they have long since expired…
The long and short is that disinfectants must be used in
the dilution specified on the product label as indicated by the
manufacturer. The importance of this is
not just for optimal decontamination, but also for optimal occupational health
and safety of the workers using the disinfectants and the patients who may come
in contact with the disinfectant. I hope
you’ll go check to find out what your preventative maintenance plan for your
dilution systems is – and while you’re at it be sure to check and confirm the
test strips have not expired!
Bugging Off!
Nicole
