Timely insights on whole room disinfection.
HospitalsFebruary 11, 2015
Hydrogen Peroxide Fogging is Stronger Than Bleach
No-hands disinfection system trumps hands-on cleaning
Clostridioides difficile spores and multidrug-resistant organisms, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), are difficult to eliminate with traditional spray-and-wipe techniques because the human touch is inexact and inconsistent.
It’s easy to miss a spot. No one is measuring the length of time the disinfectant is in contact with the surface.
That’s especially concerning because studies have shown that patients who are admitted to rooms that were previously occupied by patients with C. diff or MRSA are at greater risk of being infected. Making certain those rooms are properly disinfected between patients could be a matter of life and death.
Even supposedly thorough cleanings with bleach don’t always get the job done. In one study, 23 of 194 swabs collected from 5,000 ppm bleach-treated rooms were contaminated with C diff. That’s 12 percent—and completely unacceptable.
In the study, the cleaning staff was instructed to be especially vigilant and to pay special attention to surfaces that are often touched by patients, including call buttons, bed rails, bedside tables and door knobs. The sole method of distributing the bleach was a cloth soaked in a 0.5% hypochlorite solution that was to be used only once.
Another study showed even more dismal results, even after four rounds of 5,000 ppm bleach disinfection.
In that study, the staff also was cautioned to take extra care in cleaning. A cart with buckets of bleach solution was stationed outside the room. The staff was provided with multiple cotton cloths so that the staff would not contaminate the disinfectant by dipping a cloth that already had been used into the bucket of bleach solution.
Still, 26.6 percent of patient rooms were still contaminated with Acinetobacter or MRSA.
The Fogger Advantage
The Halo Disinfection System by Sanosil International delivers hands-free, whole room surface disinfection with aerosolized hydrogen peroxide that produces at a 6-log kill rate that can dramatically reduce infections and save patients’ lives.
HP aerosol safely achieves that goal at a lower cost than other surface disinfection technologies. The price tag for whole room surface disinfection is less than $15 per patient room.
The bottom line: the Halo system provides both efficacy and value.