FROM THE FLOOR UP


Hand washing and high-touch surfaces are key targets in healthcare cleaning, but Chicopee says that hospital floors are being overlooked.


While hospitals may have strict hygiene regimes in place to clean areas such as tables, sinks and bed rails, the same procedures are not necessarily applied to the floor. Floors may be heavily contaminated; however, limited attention is paid to their disinfection as they are not frequently touched by hand.


The recent study, carried out by the American Journal of Infection Control, found that bacteria on the floor of patient rooms, waiting areas and hospital corridors was easily transferred when it came into contact with other objects.


Researchers studied samples from 318 sites in patient rooms in five hospitals, then tested healthcare workers’ hands along with surfaces such as bed tables, linen, clothing, patients’ personal items and medical devices.


It was found that objects such as blood pressure cuffs and call buttons often fell to the floor, and when they did make contact they were at substantial risk of being contaminated by germs, despite the fact that they had been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.


THE RISKS Healthcare associated infections (HAIs) are a major but often preventable threat to patient safety, with those being treated in intensive care units being the most vulnerable. Indeed, the threat of infection increases alongside the length of the patient’s stay in high dependency departments.


However, HAIs can affect any patient at any stage of their treatment, or even after being discharged.


The World Health Organisation estimates that every year, hundreds of millions of people around the world are affected by HAIs, resulting in unnecessary deaths, long-term disability, prolonged hospital stays, a growing resistance to antibiotics by microbes and a huge financial burden on healthcare providers. In Europe alone, 37,000 people a year die from HAIs, resulting in an additional 16 million days spent in hospital.


Yet around one fifth of such infections are deemed to be preventable through an improved hygiene routine, incorporating strict guidelines on both cleaning and staff hand washing regimes.


CLEAN UP YOUR ACT Laundering alone has been shown to be insufficient for completely removing bacteria from cleaning materials. Even after washing, viruses such as E.Coli were found to be present on 93% of microfibre cloths tested, while the MRSA virus survived for up to three weeks on traditional cleaning cloths.


The introduction of high-quality, disposable microfibre cleaning materials such as the Microfibre Light from Chicopee offers a solution to the problem of cross- contamination. The same tests found that microfibre cloths picked up and trapped up to 99.99% of microbes from surfaces without transferring any.


21ST CENTURY FLOORCARE Chicopee’s Microfibre Floor Mops are designed to remove bacteria, trapping it within the fibres of the mop until it is discarded. Like the Microfibre Light, the mops are designed for short-term use; therefore the process of laundering is eradicated along with the danger of transferring germs onto the next surface to be cleaned.


Traditional string mops can be heavy and difficult to use when saturated, and may deliver an inconsistent clean, with more water being distributed at the beginning of the cleaning process than at the end. In addition, wet-mopping brings with it the risk of accidental slips and falls, along with the additional burden of requiring laundry.


Switching to a disposable microfibre mop will eradicate the danger of bacteria being spread onto the next surface to be cleaned – and as the mop removes germs, high- touch objects will not be contaminated even if they do fall to the floor.


Rather than relying on detergent or chemicals, this method of ‘mechanical cleaning’ uses tiny synthetic microfibers that dislodge then sweep away dirt and bacteria, leaving the floor up to 99.99% free from germs. It offers the additional benefits of reducing the risk of increasing bacterial resistance to cleaning solutions, and cost-efficiency thanks to the removal of laundry costs.


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