How clean are our hospitals?

Professor Christian Gericke, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Adjunct Professor and The Wesley Research Institute chief executive, said the REACH – Researching Effective Approaches to Cleaning in Hospitals – program would determine whether a new ‘bundle’ approach to hospital cleaning, including education, training and empowerment for cleaning staff, is a cost effective way to reduce the transmission of infections via surfaces in hospitals.

Conducted through The Centre of Research Excellence in Reducing Healthcare Associated Infections, the project is funded by $646,817 from the NHMRC spell out. The Wesley Research Institute is a major partner on the grant.

“Hospital cleaning is usually taken for granted but it is invaluable in preventing hospital-acquired infections. Therefore trialling the best way to clean a hospital is as valuable as trialling new medical technologies,” Professor Gericke said.

Dr Lisa Hall, QUT senior research fellow, said there were 200,000 healthcare associated infections in Australian acute healthcare facilities each year, the most common complication affecting patients in hospital.

“We really don't know what is the best way to clean a hospital,” Dr Hall admitted.

“There is a lot of documentation and literature out there that show some things work and some don't, and there are quite a few recommendations in the national guidelines for cleaning. But how to translate that information into getting cleaner hospitals and fewer infections is still unknown.

“So instead of saying to cleaners, ‘Here are 40 pages of guidelines, go clean', we will be able to say, `Here are five or six things, these are the core principles'. It will bring it back to basics.”

Hospitals involved in the REACH project will have their cleaning methods analysed. A training program would then be tailored for each site, and the new cleaning methods monitored to gauge effectiveness, including costs.

A pilot program will begin next month at Logan Hospital, where this environmental cleaning bundle – a small set of key interventions – will be trialled.

“These interventions are core principles that are evidence based, but by ensuring that they are all done together, the outcome is greater than the sum of its parts,” Dr Hall said.

“It works in the same way as wearing sun cream, a hat, and sitting in the shade, gives better results at reducing skin cancer than each intervention occurring on their own.

“Cleaners play such an important role in hospitals, and we see this project as empowering them with more knowledge.”