New research is being presented at the American Society for Microbiology meeting demonstrates that there is growing and clear evidence that the gloves of healthcare workers are contaminating surfaces throughout hospitals with bacteria.
The research was led by Sae Otania and Kazue Fujita of Nippon Medical School and utilized common healthcare pathogens.
“"Infection control is a priority for all hospitals to reduce the spread of HCAIs," said study author Sae Otani, a master course student at Bunkyo Gakuin University, "Gloving is recommended as a barrier protection for healthcare workers to reduce the risk of contamination during contact with infectious sputum, urine and body fluids," she said. However, failure to change or remove contaminated gloves carries a high-risk of healthcare-associated pathogens transmission.”
This study follows a recent recommendation by the World Health Organization for facilities and providers to adopt a new six-step hand washing technique.
In March the Joint Commission listed infection control as one of the top five issues facing hospitals and ambulatory care facilities. We recently blogged about the growing concern by health policy leaders worldwide that drug-resistant superbugs will be more deadly than cancer by 2050.
The growing publication of data on the spread of bacteria within healthcare facilities will require facility operators and healthcare providers to review their infection control procedures and systems. This review will likely lead facility operators to assess their current medical equipment and review if it meets the current standards for infection control.
Bryton offers its customers a wide variety of equipment, supplies and services that can help address this growing concern. Bryton’s line of scrub sinks and processing sinks offer our customers cutting-edge design and technology.
Additionally, our line for the Sterile Processing Department provides a full array of stainless steel shelving, case carts, processing sinks, work tables and more for maximum efficiency throughout the cleaning and sterilization process.
