Highlights
- •Patient room floors in 5 hospitals were often contaminated with health care-associated pathogens.
- •It was not uncommon for high-touch objects to be direct contact with the floor.
- •Touching objects on the floor frequently resulted in transfer of pathogens to hands.
- •Floors in hospital rooms could be an underappreciated source for pathogen dissemination.
In a survey of 5 hospitals, we found that floors in patient rooms were frequently
contaminated with pathogens and high-touch objects such as blood pressure cuffs and
call buttons were often in contact with the floor. Contact with objects on floors
frequently resulted in transfer of pathogens to hands.
Graphical abstract
Key Words
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Article info
Footnotes
Funded by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (grant no. 1R1845020004-01A1 to C.J.D.) and by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Conflicts of interest: A.D. has received research grants from 3M, Steris, and Clorox. C.J.D. has received research grants from Ecolab, Merck, GOJO, Clorox, Steris, and Pfizer.
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc.
