BP cuffs and infection control

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Does anyone else think it is a problem that we use the same BP cuff as we go from room to room? Obviously, if they're on contact isolation, they get their own, but what about everyone else? What if there is a non-diagnosed MRSA skin infection? How come some company hasn't come up with a disposable cover for BP cuffs? At least up on the floor, we try to keep the patients cleaned up, but down in ER, they come in off the street and the cuff is used from one person to the next. Sometime I wipe off the cuff with an alcohol swab, but it still looks grungy. Does this bother anyone else?:confused:

Yes, I think this is a infection control issue also. We take the same BP machine/cuff room to room at our facility. We do have a separate one for pts who are on isolation, which stays in the pts room.

On a similar note re: infection control. At our facility, they are "encouraging" nurses to carry their lap tops room to room to administer medication. (they really want us to do all charting at the bedside, in real time, taking these laptops room to room, but for now are currently requiring us to carry them in for med administration). There is not a special place to set these down in the rooms, like a nurse server, so we either have to hold them in one hand and type with one hand, or find a place to set them down in the pt room. We actually had to sign a paper saying we would carry the computer into the pt room. Comments?

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Specializes in CVICU, Burns, Trauma, BMT, Infection control.

Where I have worked especially the Burn Center nothing was brought out of a pt room to either put spares back in the supply room or take into another pt room.It was assumed that anything in a isolation pt's room was contaminated until sterilized or autoclaved or it was thrown out.We had disposable cuffs and dedicated GOOD stethoscopes,not those "things" from central that I can hear the ocean on.Even the food trays are supposed to be disposable with plastic utensils.Has infection control gone away because of the bottom line? Using disposables or cleaning,autoclaving frequently costs more but so does getting sued for nosocomial MRSA,Cdiff etc infections.

As usual it seems the suits are penny wise and pound foolish.

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We use disposable BP cuffs for everyone. Disposable pulse ox are on the way. I have to admit that I'm guilty of using my own stethoscope in an isolation room, but disinfect before I leave the room. For that matter, I use an alcohol swab on it between pts & the disinfectant wipes after being in an isolation room.

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We have recently changed our policy. We now stock disposeable tourniquets of various sizes for "dirty" cases. We also stock TQT covers (Zimmer) for use to cover reusable TQTs. We will now be storing our vast array of TQTs in one storage area so as to avoid cross-contamination. Sizes will be retrieved on an as need basis. They will be sent to be reprocessed after use. Hope this helps you.

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I would like to think who ever came up with the of disposable blood pressure, due to the fact of across containmation

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Who comes up with these ideas? That's terrible! To make you carry a laptop around- not even on a cart? How many of those things are going to fall on the floor before they get a clue? Studies have been done on office computer keyboards- they carry all kinds of nasty bugs- can't imagine what would land on a keyboard in a nursing unit.

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Specializes in Med surg, Critical Care, LTC.

We clean our pulse ox, BP cuff, electrode leads, etc... after each and every patient. We have wipes that come in a pull out container. Takes approximately 30 seconds or less to complete the task - so no one should come up with any excuse not to do it themselves.

Everyone needs to take responsibility for infection control, not just housekeeping.

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