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What is the difference between cleaning, sanitizing, and
disinfecting?
Cleaning is done with water, a cleaning product, and
scrubbing. Cleaning does not kill bacteria, viruses, or fungi,
which are generally referred to as “germs.” Cleaning
products are used to remove germs, dirt, and other organic
material by washing them down the drain.
Sanitizing and disinfecting products are chemicals that work
by killing germs. These chemicals are also called
antimicrobial pesticides. They are regulated by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Disinfectants kill
more germs than sanitizers. In most cases, a cleaning product
is used first. Then the surface is either sanitized or
disinfected.
Infectious diseases are caused by germs (also called microbes
or microorganisms) that get into our bodies and reproduce,
causing symptoms that make us feel sick. They can spread
from one person (or animal) to another when germs leave
one body and get into another. Sometimes infectious
diseases are also called communicable or contagious
diseases. Microbes that cause disease are called pathogens.
6. All hospitals should provide a written specification of
cleaning services and their delivery for all areas of the
hospital, whether provided by in-house or externally
contracted staff These should be reviewed on a regular
basis by cleaning supervisors, hospital managers, and
structural facilities and infection control personnel. Recent
recommendations on innovation and research in infection
control support the opportunity for hospitals to test new
cleaning and decontamination technologies and publish
their findings.
Near-patient hand touch sites constitute the bulk of critical
surfaces in a ward. Routine decontamination is usually
included within institutional cleaning policies, including
designated tasks for a range of staff. This can vary between
occupied and non-occupied beds, electrical and
nonelectrical items, and clinical and nonclinical equipment,
all of which illustrates cleaning complexities and the
potential for fragmented responsibility between
housekeeping, nursing, and other clinical staff. Daily
attention with detergent wipes may be sufficient to control
bio-burden on an acute-care ward, but high-risk sites in
intensive care units may require more frequent attention.
Two studies have clearly shown how MRSA rapidly re-
contaminates high-touch sites in the ICU setting after
cleaning.
7. All clinical equipment should be cleaned and/or
decontaminated before and after use for all patients
regardless of how often it is used, where it is used, or
what it is. An item intended for patient use should be
inspected carefully before it is employed, and if prior
cleaning is not evident by either notification or obvious
soiling, then it should be immediately cleaned
according to local policies. Many hospitals now ask staff
to flag specific pieces of equipment to show that they
were appropriately cleaned and/or decontaminated
after use. This is especially important for items such as
commodes and other non-disposable apparatus used
for toileting and therefore at high risk of
contamination. There are other utensils that might
come into contact with blood and/or body fluids, e.g.,
pulse oximeters, thermometers, blood sugar test kits,
saturation probes, etc., and these should also be
subjected to stringent cleaning and disinfection before
and after use. Doctors' stethoscopes have long been
the subject of cleaning audits and remain a likely source
of contamination for a range of microbial flora. Wiping
with alcohol is effective for decontaminating
stethoscopes, but it appears that even this simple
procedure is abandoned, ignored, or forgotten when
staff are overworked.