John,
We were discussing doing that ourselves, the only problem is we think is it will take the onus off the nursing staff of what they should be doing in the first place. Cleaning equipment prior to sending back to the library, or allowing non-clinical people to touch equipment that needs to be transported must be carried out by the ward, are they cleaning equipment between patients even?
I don’t think that is an excuse saying they don’t have time, surely its part of their nursing duties, therefore time should be made, we had a discussion with one of our Practice Development nurses and she was in agreement it is one of their duties.
The root cause of the problem needs to be tackled, why are they not cleaning equipment?
The patient has a right to expect the equipment was cleaned before being used on them.
I’ll watch with interest how you get on.
Good luck
Paul.
