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In their battle against hospital acquired infections, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS
Foundation Trust are using a new SystemSURE Plus ATP monitoring system from Hygiena to
assess the effectiveness of cleaning within the trust. The accuracy and cost-effectiveness
of the system have also been recognized by NHS Scotland when it was selected as the preferred
system to be introduced across the entire Scottish NHS. "North Tees and Hartlepool Hospitals
have introduced the Hygiena SystemSURE Plus to help us combat the increase in healthcare
acquired infections. We are seeing a growth in antibiotic resistant bacteria and therefore
we need to be able to validate our cleaning process to ensure that we can stop the spread
of infections. Our cleaning scores have certainly improved since the introduction of the Hygiena
SystemSURE Plus and we've seen a corresponding decrease in the number of infections within
our patients. So, we feel very strongly that this is helping to combat the increase that
we are seeing elsewhere within the health service." "The previous method for cleaning
inspections was visual inspection, where we were actually just going and looking to see
if the surface was clean. But now that we have the SystemSURE Plus, we can actually
swab equipment, swab surfaces, and actually assess if it's clean or dirty by looking at
the levels of potential microorganisms that are actually on that surface. So it's a much
more accurate method of assessment." "We chose the Hygiena SystemSURE Plus over other products
following the evaluation of a number of products on the market. We felt that the Hygiena system
met our specific requirements and in fact, provided us with the best value for the money
when we looked at it over a three year cycle." ATP technology has received Level 1 status
from the Rapid Review Panel and is included in the NHS Cleaning Manual. Sterile service
also uses ATP technology for cleaning verification, which has been found to be more effective
than the recommended protein test under HTM 2030. "The Hygiena SystemSURE Plus has been
used across the trust by our quality monitoring officers, by our ward matrons, and by our
domestic supervisors so that we can have instantaneous feedback on the standards of cleaning at ward
level." "Each month, we check all areas, especially clinical areas. We take out the swab and we
do a surface test. And we put that into the machine, it gives us a reading, if there's
anything clean or dirty on that surface. We work on a numerical value of 100 and below
is a Pass. 200 and above is a Fail. And we have anywhere in between which is cautionary."
"Infection prevention control team recently sent the workers out in their own ward areas
to actually swab equipment such as drip stands, commodes, IV infusion pumps, using SystemSURE
Plus and although the equipment on visual inspection actually looked clean, some of
the scores of the equipment was actually a lot higher than we would have expected it
to be. It actually just highlighted to the staff that work on the wards that really important
that they actually clean equipment regularly and with appropriate products." "The benefits
of using SystemSURE Plus within a clinical area are that by swabbing the surface, objects
within the ward area heighten staff awareness of the invisible harm that we could potentially
do our patients. By also letting the staff actually participate in the use of the luminometer,
which is another term that we use for the device, this helps to think beyond the routine
of the chore. The use of the SystemSURE Plus also gives trainees an immediate visual indication
of how effective their cleaning process is being. " "The infection prevention and control
team uses the SystemSURE Plus primarily for mandatory hand hygiene training. We actually
incorporate it into our teaching sessions and use it as a really useful tool to demonstrate
if staff have actually are complying with effective hand hygiene technique. So we'll
actually ask them to volunteer and we'll swab areas of the hands that they may have missed
or overlooked when they are cleaning the hands and sometimes they are quite shocked by the
high scores." "The SystemSURE handheld collects all the information and then we need to download
it onto the main computer and then that gives us a monthly report of pie charts and graphs.
This report is issued to all the relevant people that require it. For example, nursing
managers and matrons, so that we can all work together as a team to rectify any problems
that occur." " We believe that the Hygiena SYstemSURE Plus has many applications.We're
currently using it for our cleaning validation, but we're also looking to use it within our
medical equipment library to assess the effectiveness of cleaning of medical equipment. But we'd
also like to introduce it within our sterile services department and indeed our catering
functions."