Researchers conducted the study at a tertiary referral center teaching hospital. Before and after terminal or hydrogen peroxide disinfection, researchers sampled 16 sites representing high-frequency contact or difficult-to-clean surfaces in a single-isolation room or bed area in patient bed bays. They used the results of C. diff sampling to focus cleaning.
Over a one-year, researchers sampled 2,529 sites from 146 rooms and 44 bays. They found C. diff:
• On 131 of 572 surfaces (22.9 percent) before terminal cleaning
• On 105 of 959 surfaces (10.6 percent) after terminal cleaning
• On 43 of 967 surfaces (4.4 percent) after hydrogen peroxide disinfection
The study also shows that C. diff persisted most frequently in floor corners (29 percent) after disinfection.
“Although feedback of results did not improve the efficacy of manual disinfection, numbers of C. difficile following hydrogen peroxide gradually declined,” study authors noted.
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