Last year i spent a good deal of time designing a Decontamination / Equipment Status label. Refined by the comments of various technicians, nurses and Infection Control.
The final design was submitted to a company and quoted for. Then came the question, who's paying for it? My department (Medical Physics & Clinical Engineering) offered to meet 50% but when Inf. Control were asked to meet the other 50%, they refused as they saw no benefit! So my label has been long forgotten (got an image but don't know how to post it here, is it possible?)
My wish would be that Trusts, politicians, the media and staff make Device decontamination and cleanliness top priority, even more than hand cleanliness (posters everywhere) as devices are in prolonged patient contact and that dirty equipment undermines the cleaning of hands. Although not an expert, i wouldn't be at all suprised if dirty medical equipment is now the major source of HAI's.
