Practice Problem
Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) place a tremendous burden on our health care system. Russell, Secrest, and Schreeder (2012) report that 1.7 million infections and 99,000 deaths are the result of HAIs each year costing an estimated $4.5 billion. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) have recently decided to refuse payment for costs incurred as a result of a HAI (Warye & Granato, 2009). Hospitals are faced with finding new, cost-effective ways to prevent these infections. Often, infections are transmitted from patient to patient inadvertently through health care workers (HCW), either on their hands, clothing, or the equipment used to care for patients (Seibert, Speroni, Oh, DeVoe & Jacobsen, 2014). …show more content…
The study was conducted in a British intensive care unit, on 2 separate days, 3 months apart. On each day of the study, the researchers entered the unit unannounced. The survey was given to each nurse working in the unit and any clinician who entered the unit carrying a stethoscope. Stethoscopes were swabbed for culture, cleaned with the participant’s choice of cleaning method, and re-swabbed for a post-wash culture. The survey enrolled 24 unit nurse participants and 22 clinicians who served as the comparison group. The study found that 67% of the comparison group stethoscopes and 95% of the unit based stethoscopes were colonized with bacteria. Pathogenic bacteria were present on 8% of the comparison group and 14% of unit based stethoscopes. Four different cleaning methods were used, with alcohol pads being the most common method. The survey results found that 91% of nurses reported cleaning the stethoscope every time it was used, and all reported cleaning the stethoscope at least once in the current shift. The survey and culture results led the research team to conclude that stethoscope cleaning is performed inconsistently, but even regular cleaning is insufficient. Although the survey was …show more content…
While Russell, et al., (2012) found evidence to support the current CDC recommendations of cleaning stethoscopes in between each use with alcohol pads. There is also conflicting evidence on the practice of stethoscope disinfection. Young (2014) reports that just over 7% of HCW in his study clean their stethoscope daily or between each use, yet Whittington, et al., (2009) report that 91% describe cleaning their stethoscope after every use. So while research shows that disinfecting with alcohol could reduce the likelihood of bacterial transmission by means of a stethoscope, it is not clear if disinfection is being consistently