Highlights
- •Disposable shoe covers exposed briefly to apparently cleaned surgical floors were found contaminated with a large number of bacteria.
- •Bacteria, including pathogens from contaminated shoe covers, can be transferred to surgical bedsheets.
- •An infection control policy should be considered to prevent patients returning to their bed with contaminated disposable shoe covers.
Forty disposable medical shoe covers were briefly exposed to the surgical floor and
were found contaminated by a large number of bacteria. This study also demonstrated
live bacteria, including pathogens attached to contaminated shoe covers, can be subsequently
transferred to surgical bedsheets. We suggest an infection control policy should be
considered to prevent patients returning to their bed with contaminated disposable
shoe covers.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 05, 2016
Footnotes
Conflicts of Interest: None to report.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
