Steam cleaning
A good news story about hospital cleaning
It sometimes seems that there are not that many good stories coming out of the UK healthcare sector these days, with one national media announcement following another, of ‘failing’ hospitals, and lethal outbreaks of C. Difficile.
Against this depressing background, Weston Area Health NHS Trust commenced a 60-day trial of steam cleaning on the wards of Weston General hospital using Steam & Vac Pro machines from OspreyDeepclean.
The result has seen a dramatic reduction in instances of both MRSA and C. Diff.
Taken with other measures, the rate of C. Diff has dropped by 25%, while incidences of MRSA have fallen by 34% since 2003/4 when improved hygiene measures were put into place. This makes Weston General one of the best performing hospitals, so much so, that a recent inspection accredited the hospital as a ‘Site of Excellence’.
Where the benefits of ward steam cleaning have featured in particular, is in bed cleaning. Traditionally, housekeeping staff always cleaned the bed frames by hand, while nursing staff took care of the bedding. This has now changed completely, with a dedicated bed cleaning team being set up and who steam clean the entire bed, frame and mattress, freeing nursing staff for medical duties.
Now, at Weston General, no new patient can expect to be put into a bed that has not first been steam cleaned. Beds that have been steam cleaned are clearly marked with the date of cleaning and identifiable by green tape around the mattress
The hospital has now also employed a full time bed steamer, and they are steaming beds daily from 11.00 am until 6.30 pm Monday to Friday.
Housekeeping Supervisor Carol Fear says: “We find that this not only gives the patients more confidence about coming into hospital, but it also has a knock-on effect that it gives the nursing staff more time for patient care.”
Nursing Director Carolyn Moore said: “We started this trial for eight weekbut have now decided to extend it. Feedback from patients says that it gives them greater confidence to see that they are getting into a cleaned bed and they like to see our staff undertaking such thorough cleaning.
“Every patient that becomes infected as a result of their hospital stay, or from treatment, is one too many, but in this hospital we have seen a reduction in the number of patients becoming infected with C. Diff this year, which is encouraging. This success has been achieved through constant vigilance and high standards of hygiene and cleanliness.”
Weston General has 20 OspreyDeepclean Steam & Vac pro machines, one for each ward. The machines used for decontamination within the healthcare sector have been microbiologically validated by the UCLH Environmental Research Unit in London, and also at TNO, in Holland.
Using the new healthcare tools designed in cooperation with healthcare professionals, day-to-day cleaning with OspreyDeepclean equipment is elevated to a thoroughly validated decontamination procedure.
