Researchers conducted interviews at 48 hospitals focusing on current wheelchair cleaning practices, barriers to effective cleaning and possible solutions.
Most respondents were concerned with a lack of tracking and identification of dirty and clean wheelchairs (71 percent) and failure to clean or disinfect wheelchairs between patients (52 percent). Thirty-five percent of respondents were concerned with a lack of guidelines for cleaning the wheelchairs, which researchers called “complex pieces of equipment both in terms of structure and function.”
Possibly most telling is that 29 percent of respondents were concerned about use of visibly soiled wheelchairs in their facility.
Possible solutions to the problem, detailed in the study, include the following:
- Develop a tracking and tagging system for wheelchairs
- Purchase equipment for effective wheelchair cleaning
- Dedicate staff to cleaning wheelchairs
- Adopt a set of procedures for cleaning wheelchairs
- Assign a specific wheelchair to patients who need one
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Top 10 infection control stories, Oct. 27-31
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Patient safety tool: CDC’s Ebola resources
