Why speed is important
Optimizing patient throughput is essential to maintaining a smoothly operated healthcare center. Inefficient patient throughput leads to fewer patients getting the care they need and an inefficient use of resources by your organization—which can lead to a net loss in revenue. While there are many strategies to optimize patient throughput while protecting patient safety, the critical role of speed in disinfection practices has taken on new meaning given the current environment. Speed is a key evaluation metric when implementing disinfection solutions throughout a healthcare system. Disinfection execution time should be evaluated by the time it takes EV staff to implement the disinfection method, how long the method takes to run effectively, and the amount of time any related procedures entail such as tracking or reporting.
Selecting the fastest IP method
Selecting the most comprehensive IP method is also part of the time equation. When selecting an IP method, you should evaluate the method and talk to both your EV and IP team about implementation. Make sure you work with an IP partner that provides reporting on when disinfection is done so you know that rooms are complete. Solutions that provide the most complete disinfection save time by preventing the spread of harmful infections that can keep patients in rooms longer than originally prescribed and slow turnaround. However, a study in BMJ Journals suggests that hospitals cannot rely on manual cleaning alone to fully eradicate pathogens and deter HAIs. When 1,917 patient rooms were cleaned using standard processes and detergent, nearly 25 percent still contained strains of MRSA. The American Journal of Infection Control notes that combining Ultraviolet-C (UVC) technology with manual cleaning is one of the most effective ways to significantly decrease the pool of harmful pathogens that cause infection.
