OPERATING ROOM
Healthcare facilities mount deadly offense against dangerous microbes
There should be no room, no vacancies for any infections by Rick Dana Barlow
Photo credit: Darryl |
stock.adobe.com W
hen it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic that refuses to ebb, the general populace may be all
too eager to switch off the red-alert button with hopes of returning to “normal.” But no matter how dangerous or irritating the pandemic-that-simply-won’t-go-away is and all of the heightened and onerous protective measures issued by clinical and governmental authorities, second-guess- ing or underestimating actual progress can be dangerous. Presumptuous at best. Some may be willing to compromise, relax and lower the red-alert shields to orange or even yellow as hospitalization, infection and vaccination numbers fl uc- tuate, but not at the expense of effective room decontamination. After all, bacterial and viral microbes don’t follow human desire, expectations or scheduling. If they’re not eradicated through effective cleaning, decontamination, disinfection and/or sterilization they just wait around to infect humans. People may succumb to “pandemic fatigue” or embrace “mask rebellion” because they just want to get back to their lives as they knew them in 2019. Who doesn’t? But in healthcare, there’s no such thing as “infection prevention fatigue” as the fi ght remains continuous – not just continual – to the point that healthcare professionals must never let down their guard.
The new baseline
If anything, the COVID-19 pandemic increased the development, emphasis and scrutiny of room decontamination through more stringent infection prevention mea- sures and protocols.
Unfortunately, as COVID-19 infection and hospitalization statistics began to decrease, states and organizations seemed more motivated to open and relax precautionary rules before the emergence and resurgence of the Delta variant back in July. Still, many infection prevention experts acknowledge that the increased precautions for COVID-19 not only were educational and necessary but also must remain – at least those that do not require further effi cacy research once temporary emergency use authorizations expire. Karen Hoffman, R.N., CIC, FSHEA, FAPIC, Epidemiologist and Infection Prevention Consultant for NUVO Surgical and Vidashield, shares how infection pre- vention has changed since the pandemic debuted in the U.S. “Environmental measures instituted at the beginning of the pandemic have evolved as we learned more about the importance of aerosols being the primary means of transmission of COVID-19,” she said. “For example, in rooms where patients have
Karen Hoffman 14 September 2021 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS •
hpnonline.com
had procedures that generate aerosols (e.g., intubation, bronchoscopy), or when car- ing for patients with suspected or known COVID-19 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends increas- ing ventilation. However, healthcare facili- ties have ventilation systems with limits on number of air exchanges and fi ltration capabilities that generally cannot meet CDC ventilation recommendations. One technol- ogy that CDC recommends facilities con- sider using as an adjunct if a facility cannot meet the increased ventilation standards is upper room ultraviolet germicidal irradia- tion (UVGI). The Vidashield UV24 system is an upper room UVGI that has demonstrated statistically signifi cant reductions in air and surface contamination from fallout of not just aerosolized viruses but also all forms of bacteria and fungi.”
Hoffman serves as a clinical instructor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine in Chapel Hill and is the imme- diate past president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). ne specifi c technology that has emerged more as a necessity than a novelty is “no- touch” ultraviolet radiation for air and surface decontamination.
“Prior to the pandemic, many hospitals were using automated disinfection tech- nologies as part of their infection
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