Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T05:32:29.522Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bacteriological Sampling of Telephones and Other Hospital Staff Hand-Contact Objects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Karen M. Rafferty  and
Stephen J. Pancoast
Karen M. Rafferty
Affiliation:
Clinical Research Section, Scranton-Temple Residency Program and theMoses Taylor Hospital, Scranton, Pennsylvania
Stephen J. Pancoast*
Affiliation:
Clinical Research Section, Scranton-Temple Residency Program and theMoses Taylor Hospital, Scranton, Pennsylvania
*
Infectious Diseases Section, Moses Taylor Hospital, 700 Quincy Ave., Scranton, PA 185
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In an acute-care general hospital, 114 telephones, intercoms, dictaphones, and bedpan flusher handles were sampled in patient-care areas for type of bacterial contamination. Nine of these (7%) demonstrated potentially pathogenic bacteria including Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Pseudomonas and Aeromonas. Inanimate, environmental, staff hand-contact objects were only lightly contaminated, did not represent a significant reservoir of gram-negative organisms, and therefore, would be unlikely to be a vehicle of transmission of gram-negative bacteria from the hands of one staff member to another under routine circumstances. Surveillance and disinfection of telephones and related hand-contact items in the hospital appear unnecessary.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 5 , Issue 11 , November 1984 , pp. 533 - 535
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.McGowan, J: Whence come nosocomial infections? N Engl J Med 1982;307:1576–1577.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2.Knittle, M, Eitzman, D, Baer, H: Rate of hand contamination of personnel in the epidemiology of gram-negative nosocomial infection. J Pediatr 1975;86:433–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Albert, R, Condie, F: Hand-washing patterns in medical intensive-care units. N Engl J Med 1981;304:1465–1466.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4.Lennette, E, Ballows, A, Hausler, W, et al: Manual of Clinical Microbiology, ed 3. Washington, DC, American Society of Microbiology, 1980.Google Scholar
5.Maki, D, Alvardo, C, Hassemer, C, et al: Relation of the inanimate hospital environment to endemic nosocomial infection. N Engl J Med 1982;307:1562–1566.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6.Cozanitis, D, Grant, J, Makela, P: Bacterial contamination of telephones in an intensive care unit. Anaesthesist 1978;27:439–442.Google Scholar
7.Mauer, IM: Hospital Hygiene. London, Arnold, 1974, p 93.Google Scholar
8.White, D: Are telephones an infection hazard? Br Med J 1980;280:696–697.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed