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Posted By Eddie
Regarding cross-infection from keyboards in hospital wards/other patient care settings, is anyone aware of any literature or research into this?
I assume that these keyboards are contaminated with he usual range of pathogenic micro-organisms including MRSA.
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Posted By Martin R. Bessant
Hi Eddie,
I am not aware of any research into this "problem" but you could try contacting the Hospital Infection Nurses Association or the Royal College of Nursing.
Before retiring from the NHS, I used to insist on good personal hygiene in that all staff had to wash their hands in the wards/departments before using a keyboard. In addition the regular cleaning of keyboards with alcohol based wipes should reduce the risk of infection.
This is an interesting potential problem which to my knowledge has not been identified as a hazard. Perhaps some of our more active colleagues can provide futher information for you.
Regards,
Martin Bessant,
Project Officer - Healthcare Specialist Group.
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Posted By Eddie Newall
Hi Martin, thanks for your response. Your example of keyboard disinfection doesn't appear to be commonplace in my experience!
The only published research I have been able to find relates to non-medical commercial office environments where swabs taken from keyboards, mice and telephone handsets have revealed the usual pathogens including MRSA and E. coli. Also, significant food debris is found between/under keyboard key tops.
I doubt whether many health care workers would think of washing their hands/using disinfection after using a keyboard or answering the phone but this would appear necessary.
Seems like a good subject for a research project/dissertation.
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Posted By Alison Dando
We also tell our IT dept. before working with keyboards in clinical areas to use alcohol based wipes to clean them. I suspect although there is no published data most hospitals do this, as advice given either by health and safety or by control of infection depts..
As to what's contaminating the hardware in these environments, it shouldn't be surprising - any micro-organisms that people carry on their fingers could be transferred onto the keyboards and even if you wash your hands you will still have an individual's normal skin flora on the keys.
Also hospital environments tend to have a "normal flora" that patients may acquire when they come into hospital and lose when they leave as they go into another environment with a different "normal flora", i.e. their home. Cross infection with a potential pathogen unfortunately creates other problems (in a hospital environment).
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Posted By John Webster
This sort of "problem" has to be viewed in perspective, and I would not imagine keyboards to be any greater vehicle for cross infection than any other item regularly touched by medical & nursing staff - including the staff kettle! Risks must be greater with items touched by both staff and patients, e.g. door handles, TV controls, and probably highest with toilets (did the last person in here wash their hands before opening the door?).
Although regular equipment cleaning regimes help, the most important control is hand washing after contact with patients and, for problems like MRSA, barrier nursing where staff, in effect, don PPE before contact with the patient and then dispose of it before moving on to other tasks (via, of course, the hand wash basin).
John
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