Thorough cleaning of single-patient hospital rooms, including the areas commonly glossed over in the cleaning process — the "grey zones" — can lower the risk of antibiotic resistant infection, according to an article on the Becker's Infection Control and Clinical Quality website.
In a new study published in the American Journal of Infection Control, in addition to the care facility's routine cleaning measures, additional cleaning was performed on patient care items that had previously gone uncleaned.
After the the new cleaning measures, the rate of transmission for vancomycin-resistant enterococci underwent a two-fold decrease.
Grey zone cleaning had no effect on VRE infection reduction in rooms with multiple occupants.
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