Does Cleaning Time Matter? A Study to Determine the Effect of Unlimited vs. Limited Time for Terminal Disinfection

Abstract Background Although the national target for the amount of time dedicated to cleaning a hospital room following patient discharge is 45 minutes, there is no conclusive evidence that cleaning duration is related to the quality of clean in terms of microbial load. Using data from a larger study on hospital room disinfection we examined the relationship between manual cleaning time and microbial burden as assessed by aerobic bacterial colony (ABC) count on high-touch surfaces. Methods Six hundred pre-clean and post-clean samples were taken from 5 different high-touch surfaces (bedrail, tray table, call button, toilet seat, and bathroom handrail) in 44 different patient rooms. Three cleaning time categories were studied: Time limited to 25 minutes; unlimited cleaning time where the housekeeper took