Disgusted - wipes for bathing

allnurses Guide · Sep 8, 2012

Weird. In my facility we can't get WIPES, so we have to use washcloths, soap
and water EVERY time someone has an incontinence episode. I don't like it.
For an actual BATH though? Washcloths, towels, soap and water! No one
likes to have a bath while they're in the hospital?? Does your facility have a
mother/baby floor? I'm sure those new moms REALLY want to take a nice
bath with a bunch of wet wipes!!!!

Same here - the wipes are too expensive to use for baths. I do like them for peri-care (hate using a washcloth for this) but a shower or bed bath is heaven for the patient.

Isn't it funny how different it is in other hospitals? Linen - too expensive so use wipes. Wipes - too expensive so use washclothes.

DoGoodThenGo · Sep 8, 2012

Same here - the wipes are too expensive to use for baths. I do like them for peri-care (hate using a washcloth for this) but a shower or bed bath is heaven for the patient.
Isn't it funny how different it is in other hospitals? Linen - too expensive so use wipes. Wipes - too expensive so use washclothes.

Could be wrong but one assumes much of this rot started when hospitals/facilities shut down their in- house laundries and started sending everything out, if not renting linen all together.

If the hospital uses a linen service they are at the mercy of whatever rates are charged. One way to lessen those charges is to lower the amount of soiled linen that goes out.

As for wipes being so expensive, cannot understand that logic. You can find often cases of the stuff being sold on eBay and elsewhere for very low prices. I just got a case of underpads for about $20 plus shipping.

allnurses Guide · Sep 8, 2012

Could be wrong but one assumes much of this rot started when hospitals/facilities shut down their in- house laundries and started sending everything out, if not renting linen all together.
If the hospital uses a linen service they are at the mercy of whatever rates are charged. One way to lessen those charges is to lower the amount of soiled linen that goes out.
As for wipes being so expensive, cannot understand that logic. You can find often cases of the stuff being sold on eBay and elsewhere for very low prices. I just got a case of underpads for about $20 plus shipping.

We do have a laundry facility - but we used to send out our laundry. I'll have to check on that as I'm not working in the actual hospital anymore. I'm hospice.

As for eBay, I think there might be rules against a hospital buying things on eBay. We get a lot of things donated by hospice families - briefs, wipes, and just recently got two boxes of insulin pump supplies. BUT, we cannot use any of it for patients. So, we give it to our local food pantry or folks in the community we hear about who need things. I've also sent some of this to mission groups.

gummi bear · Sep 8, 2012

I've seen them, but I've never used them. It doesn't look like enough wipes come in one package anyway.

DoGoodThenGo · Sep 8, 2012

We do have a laundry facility - but we used to send out our laundry. I'll have to check on that as I'm not working in the actual hospital anymore. I'm hospice.
As for eBay, I think there might be rules against a hospital buying things on eBay. We get a lot of things donated by hospice families - briefs, wipes, and just recently got two boxes of insulin pump supplies. BUT, we cannot use any of it for patients. So, we give it to our local food pantry or folks in the community we hear about that need things. I've also sent some of this to mission groups.

Can understand a facility not being able to use goods purchased off eBay, but then again if things can be almost *given* away there why is it so hard for places to get a better price?

Ok, do understand often things are the one off but have seen plenty of "surplus" sellers that have cases upon cases of supplies. It call can't be come upon by methods used in "The Sopranos", that is "fell off a truck". *LOL*

Do know this country looses not a small amount on supplies paid for by Medicare/Medicaid for say home care that families sell on either after the patient has passed, gone into a facility and or just simply surplus to requirements.

BrandonLPN, LPN · Sep 8, 2012

At my facility, we are told the wipes are too expensive and just using washcloths is cheaper. We send our laundry (both the linens and the residents' clothes) to the state prisons and have the inmates wash them for practically free.

And the whole "infection control" rationale for outlawing washcloth bed baths is absurd. I use soap, water and washcloths every day and have somehow lived to tell about it. The line has to be drawn somewhere with infection control. At some point the gain isn't worth it. Whats next, strerile bed baths? We can only use sterile gloves and washcloths fresh out of the autoclave? Sometimes infection control policies drift away from reality....

FLmed · Sep 8, 2012

And frankly if it's about saving money on linens.
I don't pay for linens. I don't care about linens. I use whatever towels, blankets, and washcloths I need to at home.
When I get a bonus for avoiding "excessive" linen usage, we'll talk, but I'm not gonna let patient care suffer by using gross little wipes instead of a towel so the hospital can save a few bucks. H to the no.

I love what you wrote here!!!!! :-)

blondy2061h, MSN, RN · Sep 8, 2012

I put the wipes into the basin with soap and water. Our wash clothes are sandpaper rough. The wipes are much softer.

sauconyrunner · Sep 8, 2012

The bath basins are actually a HUGE infection risk. We've cultured bath basins where I work. All of them grew out pathogens, and a good deal of them grew out MDRO's, and alarmingly the patients that belonged to the basins did not have MDRO's. (though I was able to then trace the MRSA in the bath basin to a pts new MRSA status, talk about GROSS.)

It's not about the linens from an infection control standpoint, it's about the stupid plastic basins. If they were stored properly and DRIED, rather than being used as storage for a wide variety of things, we would have better success.

What we recommend at our facility is that if a pt has incontinence, we use a towel, wet or dry soap or not to clean the patient first, then we use the wipe. It's actually more expensive for us to have the wipes, but we decided it was good for infection control.

But we didn't get rid of washcloths, or towels. and use of them has not gone down. It's not the soap or water, it is the basin.

Funny thing is we also did a pilot study with patients, and about 98% of them preferred the warmed bath wipes to a basin bath. And our nurses really like using them as well, we haven't really had any of the issues described here. I wonder though, if they would have been if we had tried to lower the linen par or take away linen.

Trekfan · Sep 8, 2012

I think it just depends on the hospital . One place around hear uses bath wipes and my dad came home once so stinky I could not get near him ..I was just in the hospital the other week when I got sick and I have also had hand surgey so I could not wipe myself after I had a bm. so every time I went I had to get in the shower no one had any problem with this even thoue they had to redo my iv dressing all the time .

orthonurse55 · Sep 8, 2012

I teach CNA classes. I was told by our Infection Control nurse that my students are not to give basin baths because of the infection risk. She even followed up with written documentation. I am an older nurse and a firm believer in basin baths and how good they make the patient feel and smell. It's very hard for me to go along with this rule, although I know I have to since it is now hospital policy. I think the wipes are ridiculous, like trying to get clean using baby wipes.

SarcasticLVN · Sep 8, 2012

I thought we were taught in cna class to use basins of warm water and towels? Changing the water in between? Washing from top to bottom is infection control.. I Wouldnt mind using wipes for wiping the face and hands but our facility would throw a fit if we asked for packages of wipes.