Practical Approaches for Assessment of Daily and Post-discharge Room Disinfection in Healthcare Facilities.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Cleaning and disinfection in healthcare facilities is essential to ensure patient safety. This review examines practical strategies used to assess and improve the effectiveness of daily and post-discharge manual cleaning in healthcare facilities.

RECENT FINDINGS: Effective implementation of cleaning interventions requires objective monitoring of staff performance with regular feedback on performance. Use of fluorescent markers to assess thoroughness of cleaning and measurement of residual ATP can provide rapid and objective feedback to personnel and have been associated with improved cleaning. Direct observation of cleaning and interviews with front-line staff are useful to identify variations and deficiencies in practice that may not be detected by other methods. Although not recommended for routine monitoring, cultures can be helpful for outbreak investigations. Monitoring and feedback can be effective in improving cleaning and disinfection in healthcare facilities. Ongoing commitment within institutions is needed to sustain successful cleaning and disinfection programs.