Ideas That Work: A Cheaper Way to Check Your Manual Cleaning Results

Practical pearls from your colleagues

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) testing and fluorescent markers are great ways to monitor how well your environmental services staff is cleaning your ORs. ATP swabs can be expensive, though, and many brands require refrigeration of the swabs. The fluorescent markers can be pricey as well, as some must be purchased along with a software package for data management purposes.

A less expensive alternative? Any laundry detergent, such as Tide Free & Gentle, that contains a fluorescent dye that whitens or brightens clothes. Simply pour a small amount of the detergent into a cup and use a single cotton swab to mark 10 to 20 high-touch surfaces in the room and let it dry before a room is cleaned.

“After the manual cleaning, go in with a flashlight or a black light,” says Nancy Havill, MT(ASCP), MHA, CIC, an infection prevention manager at Yale New Haven Health System in Connecticut. “If the fluorescence is still there, they missed that spot.” Ms. Havill recommends using only one swab per room and only a tiny amount of detergent, as using too much could turn it into soapy bubbles when it comes into contact with the disinfectants used by EVS during cleaning. OSM