Interactions between anesthesiologists and the environment while providing anesthesia care in the operating room

L Silvia Munoz-Price; David A Lubarsky; Kristopher L Arheart; Guillermo Prado; Timothy Cleary; Yovanit Fajardo-Aquino; Dennise Depascale; Scott Eber; Philip Carling; David J Birnbach

doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2013.03.306

Interactions between anesthesiologists and the environment while providing anesthesia care in the operating room

Am J Infect Control. 2013 Oct;41(10):922-4. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2013.03.306.

Authors

L Silvia Munoz-Price¹, David A Lubarsky, Kristopher L Arheart, Guillermo Prado, Timothy Cleary, Yovanit Fajardo-Aquino, Dennise Depascale, Scott Eber, Philip Carling, David J Birnbach

Affiliation

¹ Department of Medicine, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL; Department of Anesthesiology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL; Department of Public Health Sciences, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL; Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, FL. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 24074540
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajic.2013.03.306

Abstract

We describe 1,132 contacts between anesthesiologists and the operating room. Objects most commonly touched included anesthesia machines and keyboards. Only 13 hand hygiene events were witnessed during 8 hours of observations. Line insertions, bronchoscopies, or blood exposures were not followed by hand hygiene. Stopcocks were accessed 66 times and only disinfected on 10 (15%) of these occasions.

Keywords: Anesthesia providers; Environmental contacts; Hand hygiene; Intraoperative.

MeSH terms

Anesthesia / methods*
Environmental Microbiology*
Hand Hygiene*
Humans
Operating Rooms*
Risk Assessment
Surgical Wound Infection / prevention & control*