Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

31 Executive Briefi ng 2 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING SPONSORED BY How a layered approach to disinfection can help organizations ensure a clean environment B ecker's Healthcare recently spoke with Alice Brewer, director of clinical affairs for Tru-D SmartUVC, and Debra Hagberg, director of clinical affairs for PDI Healthcare, about what hospitals can do to bring their cleaning and disinfection protocols in line with best practices. Their observations suggest healthcare may be at the threshold of a new era for disinfection techniques. Tru-D SmartUVC is a pioneer in the UVC disinfection space, providing health care facilities with patented Sensor360® technology that calculates the precise dose of UVC energy needed to disinfect a space. PDI Healthcare, which acquired Tru-D SmartUVC in 2019, offers products that are designed to help you Be The Difference® in improving patient outcomes and reducing costs through evidence-based products designed specifically for the health care environment. The COVID-19 pandemic brought new attention to cleaning practices Over the past two years, public-facing organizations of all kinds — including food, retail and commercial establishments, as well as schools, nursing homes and government-run services — have reinforced their cleaning and disinfection practices. This trend has been especially pronounced in hospitals and throughout healthcare, where spaces and surfaces are being cleaned more thoroughly than ever before. "It used to be that [cleaning staff] focused on thoroughly cleaning patient rooms and procedural areas, but now we're seeing a lot more attention being paid to public spaces such as waiting rooms, bathrooms and cafeterias," Ms. Brewer said. Within hospitals, the environmental services teams are critical to a successful and robust disinfection program. They must work in tandem with healthcare professionals and nursing to make decisions on purchasing new solutions or updating existing protocols. The experience of the pandemic has also spurred interest in enhanced cleaning technologies in other parts of healthcare, such as doctors' offices, clinics and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). "ASCs are on the rise," Ms. Brewer said. "We're seeing more and more people having surgery in an outpatient setting, but the same concerns exist surrounding the cleanliness of the environment. So [ASC leaders] are becoming more interested in applying the technology in those spaces, to make sure that their operating rooms are clean and there are no microorganisms left behind." For optimal cleanliness, a layered approach to disinfection works best Manual disinfection — the standard, manual approach to cleaning in hospitals — leads to as much as 50 percent of surfaces in a hospital room being missed, Ms. Brewer said. "There's no one easy solution, no one quick fix to eliminate every organism. So you really have to bundle or layer different interventions together," she said. "Using a layered approach with multiple strategies accounts for gaps in practice and ensures that you haven't missed anything." Ms. Hagberg added, "There are always new products and technologies coming out, and what one hopes they will do is address longstanding issues. Some longstanding issues within environmental cleaning and disinfection include gaps in the disinfection methods as well as an ability to meet the frequency of disinfection that's required to cover areas of concern." A layered approach to disinfection provides a solution to these issues as it "covers all the bases," thanks to incorporating three distinct mechanisms of action: • Chemical manual disinfection, characterized by using chemical saturated surface wipes (the conventional approach) • Enhanced UVC cleaning (UVC) that uses UVC light to inactivate viruses and bacteria by disrupting the structure of the organism (the technology underlying the Tru-D technology's "smart" solution) • Continuously active disinfectant (CAD) that is applied to a surface, leaving a layer of disinfectant that provides continuous antimicrobial action against microorganisms on surfaces for 24 hours.* This third approach to disinfection is a novel technology that enhances the traditional method of manual disinfection. "Tru-D SmartUVC and PDI as a combined company is able to provide customers with that layered approach completely internally, with our own broad portfolio of products," Ms. Brewer said. "We go all the way from surface wipes to UVC disinfection to now continuously active disinfecting of surfaces, so customers don't have to shop from different companies — they can get it all in one place." manual approach to cleaning in hospitals — leads to as much as 50 said. "There's no one easy solution, no one quick fix to eliminate interventions together," she said. "Using a layered approach with multiple strategies accounts for

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