Department of Clinical Microbiology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.
Department of Clinical Microbiology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.
J Hosp Infect. 2019 Sep;103(1):e16-e22. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2019.06.008. Epub 2019 Jun 21.
Microbial contamination of the near-patient environment is an acknowledged reservoir for nosocomial pathogens. The hospital bed and specifically bed rails have been shown to be frequently and heavily contaminated in observational and interventional studies. Whereas the complexity of bed rail design has evolved over the years, the microbial contamination of these surfaces has been incompletely evaluated. In many published studies, key design variables are not described, compromising the extrapolation of results to other settings. This report reviews the evolving structure of hospital beds and bed rails, the possible impact of different design elements on microbial contamination and their role in pathogen transmission. Our findings support the need for clearly defined standardized assessment protocols to accurately assess bed rail and similar patient zone surface levels of contamination, as part of environmental hygiene investigations.
医院环境临近区域的微生物污染是公认的医院病原体储源。观察性和干预性研究表明，病床尤其是床栏经常受到严重污染。虽然床栏设计的复杂性多年来一直在发展，但这些表面的微生物污染尚未得到充分评估。在许多已发表的研究中，关键设计变量未被描述，从而影响了将结果外推到其他环境的能力。本报告回顾了医院病床和床栏的演变结构，不同设计元素对微生物污染的可能影响及其在病原体传播中的作用。我们的研究结果支持需要明确标准化评估协议，以准确评估床栏和类似的患者区域表面污染程度，作为环境卫生调查的一部分。
