Do You Sanitize Your Pulse Ox?

[el Murpharino]

Alot of hospitals are going to disposable equipment now - SpO2 readers, BP cuffs, etc. Can't say I blame them...although I'm not sure how cost effective it is.

 

[Sasha]

You know with those super wipes that will find any cut you have had in the last year....Yeah those are the ones.

The Cancer Wipes? The ones that are supposed to give you liver cancer or something if you don't wear gloves to use them?

 

[amberdt03]

Sometimes the ED staff are already anticipating the long haul and have a list of differential dxs forming from the report or even the NH already called ahead with something signicant like C-Diff precautions.

sometimes when i would go to the hospital to pick up a patient that is going to a nursing home, i see the precautions sign on the door. so i would ask the nurse what the patient has and they would tell me mrsa in the nares. so i would put a gown on and a mask and go in. about a minute later the nurse would walk in with no gown, gloves, or mask on. and they would look at me like i was crazy.

 

[rhan101277]

I have wiped down backboards and stretchers. On many IFT calls the stretcher doesn't get wiped down. Even though they are wiped down they can still get spores on them from you if you are sick, or from outside air if people are close enough.

What about changing your gloves if touching multiple patients? Do you do that everytime? Or only when your gloves come into contact with blood or other bodily fluids.

I know back in the old days when doctors delivered babies, they just cleaned their hands with a towel and wondered why all of these women having babies were getting sick.

It seems when things are hectic people may try to rush you and say, don't worry about changing gloves etc. What is everyone dealings with this?

 

[Buzz]

LOL! Yep, we are the ones who leave the used paper towels laying on the floor next to the rest room door if there is no trash can at the exit.

If you're quick, you can sometimes make it over to the trashcan and back to the door before it closes--or at least while it's still open enough to get your foot down to stop it from closing. ^_^

 

[amberdt03]

If you're quick, you can sometimes make it over to the trashcan and back to the door before it closes--or at least while it's still open enough to get your foot down to stop it from closing. ^_^

thats too funny.

 

[PapaBear434]

We clean everything, especially after a dirty patient. There are some exceptions. If you have a twenty year old that says he feels a little sick... Well, we'll change the sheets of course, but we MAY not wipe down the entire mattress.

But hands are dirty, dirty things. We use them constantly to touch everything in the world.

If you think about it, you should probably wash off your genitals after every time you use the rest room, not your hands. If you showered that morning and changed your underwear, your nice clean unmentionables have been resting comfortably in clean, soft cotton. Your hands, on the other hand, have been touching every doorknob at work, the pens chained to the teller window at the bank, the table at McDonald's that has been wiped down by an absent minded teenager making minimum wage with a dirty hand towel, a human resource file that has been passed to how many people at the office including Debbie who insisted on coming to work with the flu when she really shouldn't have...

Those PulseOx machines better get wiped down, dang it. Plastic clam shell with lots of crevasses being put on the hands of admittedly sick people can only be an invite to some horrible bacteria. If they weren't so economically and environmentally unsound, I'd say use disposables all the time.

 

[trevor1189]

A few weeks ago I saw a disposable pulsox lead used, first time I have ever seen one. Didn't know there was such a thing. Pretty cool. Patients complaints were not consistent with anything that could be contracted so I am assuming it's that department's standard.

 

[VentMedic]

A few weeks ago I saw a disposable pulsox lead used, first time I have ever seen one. Didn't know there was such a thing. Pretty cool. Patients complaints were not consistent with anything that could be contracted so I am assuming it's that department's standard.

It can also be pretty expensive.

 

[trevor1189]

It can also be pretty expensive.

Oh, I don't doubt that...

 

[VentMedic]

Here are a few examples for the cost of disposable probes:

http://www.medical-supplies-equipme...t/PPF/param/2065_0__1_true/product_search.asp

 

[trevor1189]

Here are a few examples for the cost of disposable probes:

http://www.medical-supplies-equipme...t/PPF/param/2065_0__1_true/product_search.asp

Ouch! That could really get costly. h34r:

 

[BossyCow]

We use the disposable ones for the peds only. As far as disinfecting the unit... everything that touches a patient gets virexed.

 

[itku2er]

Yes we do everything is wiped down between patient contact. I am big on infection control and I will be the first to jump your back side if I see you not taking proper infection control measures. In this day and time anyone not practicing good BSI is just crazy because you never know what you are getting into when those tones drop.

 

[imurphy]

No No. you're all doing it wrong!

Just spray the PATIENT before they touch anything!!

 

[PapaBear434]

No No. you're all doing it wrong!

Just spray the PATIENT before they touch anything!!

There's been times I wanted to...

 

[medic417]

We use the disposable ones for the peds only. As far as disinfecting the unit... everything that touches a patient gets virexed.

Hoep everything you guys touch gets cleaned as well. I see way to many providors touching everything in the box but when they clean up they only clean the cot and the items that touched the patient.

 

[BossyCow]

Hoep everything you guys touch gets cleaned as well. I see way to many providors touching everything in the box but when they clean up they only clean the cot and the items that touched the patient.

No, we clean everything! I'm a bit of a freak on this point. I have even had the local hospital Infection Control supervisor do cultures on the ambulance to point out to our members where their cleaning falls short.

 

[medic417]

No, we clean everything! I'm a bit of a freak on this point. I have even had the local hospital Infection Control supervisor do cultures on the ambulance to point out to our members where their cleaning falls short.

LOL. Bet that was a real eye opener. Ambulances are mobil petri dishes. I scrub my ambulances and get pissed when I get in one and find bloody finger prints on anything beacause then I know ambulance is filthy. I then spend forever cleaning. Can we say OCD?

 

[AJ Hidell]

Ambulances are mobil petri dishes. I scrub my ambulances and get pissed when I get in one and find bloody finger prints on anything beacause then I know ambulance is filthy. I then spend forever cleaning.

Immediately after the equipment and supply check and inventory, the next hour of each shift is spent completely cleaning and sanitizing the unit, inside and out. Doesn't matter to me what condition the previous crew left it in. It's still going to get a complete overhaul from me as soon as I come on shift.

Something that has been quite obvious to me is that, those with a microbiological education happily jump right into the cleaning effort without argument. Those without it want to argue and whine the whole time about how "it's good enough".

A lot of agencies have a policy that the off-going crew is supposed to leave the truck clean. Nonsense. YOU are responsible for the equipment you are using, not someone who isn't even on shift anymore. It has been the policy of any agency that I have managed that the oncoming crew is to perform this function, not the off-going crew. If I find a problem with the unit during shift, it is that crew who is responsible, not some guys who have been home for four hours already.