I’ve often wondered if a dedicated “clean team” that went around constantly disinfecting door knobs, bed railings and other commonly touched areas, would make a difference in combating this stuff.
Anyhow, we would bleach wash the entire OR, then wash. At the time we were also practicing how to take and grow cultures, and identify the common infectious bacteria. So we would also culture the OR. Often we couldn't get a culture.
Anyhow, hot water, elbow grease, detergent, bleach and rinsing.
I go into hospitals now and to me they are filthy, sticky. I see some schlep with a spray bottle and a dirty rag just spraying over a build up of the last spray/dirt/filth.
It would and does. Many hospitals have trained their cleaning staffs to be especially cognizant of MSRA and to try to disinfect everything they can think of. But one of the easiest ways to keep from spreading MSRA is for the nurses and doctors to simply wash their hands as soon as they enter the patient’s rooms and before they touch anything.
Our infectious disease team is working very hard to keep infections down. If they aren’t allowed to warn visitors about proper hygiene because they are afraid to violate patient confidentiality then how can you stop it from spreading?
We need to go back to basic, preantibiotic, Lister first principles. All surfaces should be tile, or metal or plastic, so they can REALLY be cleaned. No drapes, carpeting, cloth chairs etc etc etc ( a lot of this crap is patient driven, they like the “hotel” look, not a “hospital” look). Many hospitals have cut cleaning personnel to the bone expecting the nursing staff to do it. Thats got to stop.