Environmental Services

While the saying goes that no one comes to work looking to make mistakes, they do happen, and they can lead to serious adverse events and poor patient outcomes. Where humans can introduce errors into a process, machines can help ensure standardization and uniformity, and an increasing number of healthcare organizations are evaluating and purchasing automated systems that boost their risk management strategies and patient safety efforts. Automation-driven processes are free from human fatigue and error, so they can help provide consistency and accuracy and potentially lead to a reduction in patient complications, infections and deaths. More predictable outcomes are possible with automated technology, and higher throughout can be achieved.

There are five key considerations that healthcare professionals should take into account when selecting the optimal disinfectant for the decontamination of environmental surfaces and noncritical patient-care items.

As a 35-year veteran of environmental services, Scott Hedding, MBA, FACHE, the system director of environmental services for Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee, Wis., understands fully the critical role that his department plays in patient safety and infection prevention. He champions the 500 environmental services professionals that are in the 1,700-bed Aurora Health Care system, driving home the importance of quality improvement, personnel engagement in that process, and personal accountability for keeping patients safe and free from infection. Hedding shares his perspectives on motivating and leading his staff and introducing best practices and new products into existing programs and protocols successfully.

There are many reasons why bed bugs have made a comeback in recent decades, and their resistance to commonly used insecticides is one of the most widely accepted explanations. In a new paper published in the Journal of Economic Entomology, scientists from the University of Sydney and NSW Health Pathology describe how bed bugs are able to resist pyrethroid insecticides via metabolic detoxification, the process by which bed bugs break down insecticides.

Efficacy of hospital-grade cleaners and disinfectants is one of the most widely scrutinized aspects of surface disinfection, yet this factor could be undermined by the lesser-known obstacle of materials compatibility -- how cleaning and disinfection chemistries interact with the materials from which healthcare equipment and surfaces are manufactured.