Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control (Nov 2024)

The impact of enhanced cleaning on bacterial contamination of the hospital environmental surfaces: a clinical trial in critical care unit in an Egyptian hospital

  • Nermine Mahmoud Hassan Hamed,
  • Osama Ahmed Deif,
  • Aleya Hanafy El-Zoka,
  • Magda Mohamed Abdel-Atty,
  • Mohamed Fakhry Hussein

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-024-01489-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Abstract Background Contaminated environmental surfaces play an important role in the transmission of pathogens that cause healthcare acquired infection (HAI). The present study aimed to assess the effect of enhanced cleaning techniques on bacterial contamination in high-touch areas compared to routine cleaning at the intensive care units (ICU) of the neurosurgery department of Alexandria Main University Hospital, Egypt. Methods The assessment of the knowledge and practices of healthcare cleaning workers and nurses was conducted through a questionnaire and an observational checklist. An educational program about enhanced cleaning was carried out for healthcare cleaning workers and nurses in one room of the ICU unit. Environmental surface swabs were taken from the two rooms of the ICU before and after cleaning (room A and room B). Room A was selected to apply the enhanced cleaning, and room B was selected for routine cleaning. Results A significant decrease in bacterial counts in the high-touch areas around the patients after the application of enhanced cleaning compared to routine cleaning (p < 0.001) was observed. Gram-negative bacteria isolated from high-touch areas accounted for 45.6% of the samples collected before enhanced cleaning, and they became 16.3% after enhanced cleaning (p < 0.001), while they accounted for 40% after routine cleaning. The enhanced cleaning intervention in Room A resulted in a significant reduction in total infections, decreasing from 18 cases in the six months prior to the intervention to 11 cases in the six months following its implementation. (p < 0.05). Conclusion The effect of enhanced cleaning was evident in decreasing bacterial counts in the high-touch areas around the patient and consequently in the records of the HAI rate inside the ICU. Clinical trial registration number PACTR202402531001186, date: 15 February 2024, ‘retrospectively registered’.

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