Do you clean B/P cuffs between pts???

[lee1]

Just asking this question as have seen it discussed on other listserv.

Especially would like to know what your hospital policies are regarding this.

Especially on med/surg/telemetry type floors where the nurse has generally 5 or more patients and the techs are helping with vital signs.

Thanks

[stbernardclub]

God no...only if it had gotten soiled. if anyone tell you they clean their cuff between patients i would be leary to believe them. I have never even heard to do that from any infection control meeting or orientation.

[Fun2, BSN, RN]

I'm sure disposable cuffs will be mandatory at some point in the future.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

We switched to disposable cuffs a couple of years ago. These are wonderful---they come in every size, each pt. has his/her own, and we just toss 'em in the trashcan after discharge. I would imagine they add to the expense of a hospital stay, but IMHO, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages as far as infection control and hygiene are concerned. :)

[jnette, ASN, EMT-I]

We spray/wipe ours down with 1:100 bleach solution once a week. :)

[lee1]

Thanks so far. Does anyone have hospital policies about this type of thing?

Also are you cleaning the non disposable pulse ox probes and if so how???

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

We're supposed to be going to disposables by June. I cleaned the BP after using it on a sweaty pt. or after using it on an isolation pt. (it never failed, the BP machine in the isolation rooms were ALWAYS broken). My first round, i would get the BPs for the whole floor, then i'd plug the Datascope up and clean it.

[Burnt Out, ASN, RN]

Our techs clean the Dinamaps after going in isolation rooms or after taking a sweaty patient's VS. We wipe all the machines down once a week with our hospital disinfectant.

[lee1]

Reply below from an infection control nurse:

"""First off, when deciding about the potential risk from a piece of patient

care equipment, one must consider what the equipment is being used for, the

potential for contamination, and the risk of that piece of equipment being

able to maintain a colony of organism large enough to cause illness in

another human being.

The case of surgical instruments is easy . . . they enter 'sterile' spaces,

have gross contact with blood/body fluids and, if not appropriately cleaned

and sterilized between patients, certainly have a great risk of causing

infection and illness in another person.

Equipment which is used 'between' patients, such as BP cuffs, stethoscopes,

commodes or bedpans, and including tourniquets, are considered 'reusable'

and must be cleaned appropriately between patients. In a perfect world with

lots of money for 'disposable' items, the answers would be easy. Each

patient gets their own, which is discarded when they are discharged. In the

real world this is not feasible, nor economically viable (especially here in

Ontario where our deficits are huge).

Consider what the equipment is coming in contact with. In the case of the

tourniquet or BP cuff, intact skin. The risk of acquiring an organism,

which will result in illness if applied to another human, from intact skin

(we'll move on to the ARO's in a second) is very very low. Of course, if

the skin is not intact and there is the potential for the equipment coming

in contact with body fluids, the equipment would be considered to be of a

higher risk and must be cleaned appropriately.

In our institution, my recommendation is that all BP cuffs be wiped down

between patients (an no, I don't believe this happens all the time in day to

day practice - and would welcome alternative teaching suggestions that I

have been unable to come up with in the past ten years to get the point

across LOL - and that tourniquets be wiped with an alcohol swab between

patients. BP cuffs are relatively easy, here at least, as the majority are

wall mounts. There are several departments that use the 'monitor on wheels'

version and I sometimes shudder as I see it roll down the hall. Our lab

staff are pretty meticulous about wiping their tourniquets, but floor staff

often just shove the thing in their pocket (or worse, tie it to their name

tags or stethoscope)picking up not only patient flora and fauna, but their

own and the units as well.

Now, if a patient is in isolation for whatever reason, the tourniquet is

left in the room (as are the cheap stethoscopes), and depending on the type

of isolation, we may even use disposable thermometers. When the patient is

discharged, the tourniquet is thrown away, the BP cuff is sent for cleaning

and the stethoscope is also cleaned (and cohorted in the isolation box for

either VRE or cdiff).

My recommendation for home health, with a patient who has intact skin, would

be to leave the tourniquet at the residence, wipe it with an alcohol swab

prior and post usage, keep in in a Ziplock bag (or glad or whatever you

have!) and dispose of it once the patient is discharged from care. In the

hospital setting wiping of the tourniquet between patients is the

recommendation, with dedicated equipment in certain isolation situations.

Guidelines for the cleaning/usage of reusable equipment can be found on the

APIC website, the CDC website and the Health Canada website.""""

[riern]

My facility currently uses disposable cuffs. However, there is some discussion about the inaccuracy of the dinamaps. One of the larger hospitals in our area has returned to the manual cuffs at least in the MCU dept. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend.

[lee1]

My facility currently uses disposable cuffs. However, there is some discussion about the inaccuracy of the dinamaps. One of the larger hospitals in our area has returned to the manual cuffs at least in the MCU dept. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend.

Are the dinamaps recalibrated on a regular basis?? Is there a way to recalibrate them??

[HazeK]

Love our disposable cuffs for L&D!

We quite often have bloody messes at delivery...it is so nice to not have to try to clean out the nondisposable cuffs!

Haze