Going Virtual: From Direct to Virtual Observation for Monitoring Disinfection

Reviewed by Clare Marlin, MS RN CIC, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab

The Disinfection Tracking System (DTS) is a wireless, automated system which records and monitors the occurrence of disinfection events on portable medical equipment (PME) by sensing moisture from disinfectant wipes or UV light. Once the disinfection events are captured, the DTS uploads the information to a cloud-based database for review. The authors’ goals included testing the manual cleaning of PME, such as workstations-on-wheels (WOWs) and vital signs machines, in clinical settings by attaching the DTS to PME, as well as comparing staff-reported cleaning activities with data collected by the DTS over 25 days. Previous literature has shown PME is not consistently disinfected appropriately between patient care activities, which increases the risk of transmitting healthcare associated organisms between patients. Utilizing a device like the DTS is an efficient way to maintain virtual oversight of PME disinfection, provide objective feedback on compliance with hospital disinfection policies, and reallocate infection prevention and control staff who would traditionally complete direct observations of disinfection events. The DTS is an example of early-stage technology facilitating the evolution of the infection prevention field.

Reference: Martel, et al. (2021). Capturing portable medical equipment disinfection data via an automated novel disinfection tracking system. American Journal of Infection Control, doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2021.05.008

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