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Bacteriological Sampling of Telephones and Other Hospital Staff Hand-Contact Objects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Karen M. Rafferty  and
Stephen J. Pancoast
Karen M. Rafferty
Affiliation:
Clinical Research Section, Scranton-Temple Residency Program and theMoses Taylor Hospital, Scranton, Pennsylvania
Stephen J. Pancoast*
Affiliation:
Clinical Research Section, Scranton-Temple Residency Program and theMoses Taylor Hospital, Scranton, Pennsylvania
*
Infectious Diseases Section, Moses Taylor Hospital, 700 Quincy Ave., Scranton, PA 185
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Abstract

In an acute-care general hospital, 114 telephones, intercoms, dictaphones, and bedpan flusher handles were sampled in patient-care areas for type of bacterial contamination. Nine of these (7%) demonstrated potentially pathogenic bacteria including Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Pseudomonas and Aeromonas. Inanimate, environmental, staff hand-contact objects were only lightly contaminated, did not represent a significant reservoir of gram-negative organisms, and therefore, would be unlikely to be a vehicle of transmission of gram-negative bacteria from the hands of one staff member to another under routine circumstances. Surveillance and disinfection of telephones and related hand-contact items in the hospital appear unnecessary.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 5 , Issue 11 , November 1984 , pp. 533 - 535
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1984

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