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Cleaning of Patient Equipment

April 25, 2021

This document is a summarised version of OP-GC5-Cleaning of Patient Care Equipment. The summary has been created to be Emergency Department specific, and has been endorsed by the ED Leadership Team . Staff should review the document if they require further information.

Overview:

As shared patient equipment can act as a “vehicle by which infectious agents are transferred between patients,” it is important that proper care and cleaning of equipment is adhered to.

What does this look like in Practice

  1. All shared patient care equipment must be cleaned with hospital approved wipes containing detergent and disinfectant after each patient use.
  2. All patient care equipment should be disinfected using disinfecting wipes (ie. Clinell) upon being removed from an isolation room.
  3. Shared cleaned equipment (eg. bladder scanner/ECG machine/IV poles) should be clearly tagged as ‘Clean’ utilising the approved green tag. Any equipment that does not have the ‘Cleaned’ tag is to be considered unsafe and must be cleaned
  4. Any damaged equipment that cannot be adequately cleaned and disinfected should be placed in a clear plastic bag (where possible) before returning to the Clinical Equipment Library or engineering with a BEIMS attached.
  5. The schedule of cleaning patient care equipment is provided in the Table 1.

Table 1: Equipment Cleaning protocol in the Emergency Department

Equipment

Equipment

Method

Who is responsible?

Bed
Clean after patient discharge:

– Rails/frame

– Whole bed

Detergent + disinfectant Nurse + PSA
Bedpans and urinals
After patient use Thermal washer/sanitiser Nurse
Commode
Clean contact points after patient use Detergent + disinfectant Nurse
Lifting equipment (ie. hoists)
Clean contact points after patient use Detergent + Disinfectant Nurse
Drips/intravenous stands/poles
After patient use Detergent + disinfectant Nurse + PSA
Medical equipment (eg. pulse oximeters/stethoscopes) NOT connected to patient
Clean daily and between patient use Detergent + disinfectant Nurse + PSA
Patient slide/board
After patient use Detergent + disinfectant Nurse + PSA

Supporting Documentation:

Cleaning of Patient Care Equipment Procedure (OP_GC5)