Holistic operating room hygiene control for air and surface cleanliness

Abstract

Surgical site infections pose a severe risk for patients entering in a surgery. Surgical site infections are caused when microbes are entering to operation wound during surgery. Treatment of surgical site infections is very difficult and expensive, and it is expected that this will be even more difficult in the future due increased number of antibiotic resistant bacteria, such as MRSA, in hospitals.

The microbes may penetrate to patient wound principally through two routes: through air in a form of airborne microbes or by physical contact. In the later case the infection may be caused if an operating person touch a contaminated surface before accessing to the wound. Thus, to minimize surgical site infections it is utmost important to ensure that both operating room air and surfaces are maintained clean both during the operation and between consecutive operations.

The air cleanliness may be ensured with an appropriate ventilation system that is able to react according to surgical schedule also between operations. A throughout surface cleaning by cleaning staff is typically applied at the end of the day and additional cleaning takes place between operations. However, mechanical cleaning may leave some surfaces that are not fully cleaned and especially surfaces that are hard to reach or have complicated structures may remain untouched. To ensure better cleaning result it is possible to back up mechanical cleaning with a radiant disinfection. A blue light-based disinfection method can provide a safe to people cleaning both during operating room downtime and also between operations.

A novel, holistic integrated operating room cleaning system is developed to address simultaneously challenge of both air and surface cleaning. This system is managed by an intelligent control system that can automatically manage both air and surface cleaning processes through seamless interfacing with medical operations management system. Coordinated dimensioning is described to provide simultaneously optimal cleaning result of both airborne and surface bacteria. It is also described how the control system is set to provide cleaning cycles, personnel safety and comfort, and energy efficiency according to operational schedule.