Stethoscopes: Friend or Fomite?

Details

• Personal Author:
  Breen AE ; Hessels AJ
• Description:
  Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) continue to remain at the forefront of the challenges facing healthcare today. According to the CDC, on an average day in U.S. hospitals, 1 in every 25 patients has at least one HAI. These infections affect approximately 2 million patients annually, resulting in 99,000 estimated deaths and attributable costs of $6.7 billion. Although estimates suggest that between 10% and 70% of HAIs are preventable with simple improvements in hygiene, predominantly hand washing, current research leads us to believe that poor hand hygiene isn't the sole means by which infection spreads.4,5 There's compelling evidence from recent studies that many stethoscopes when tested were found to harbor disease-causing bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, including methicillin-resistant strains (MRSA). Moreover, evidence is accruing that many clinicians fail to properly clean their stethoscopes, often citing both a basic lack of understanding of stethoscope hygiene principles and a general misconception regarding the potential implications for patient safety when proper stethoscope hygiene practices aren't followed. These studies are small and many have been conducted outside of the U.S. healthcare system. A gap persists in our understanding of knowledge, attitudes, and practices of U.S. nursing staff, particularly among ICU nursing staff where stethoscopes are used more frequently than on other units. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Education Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Hospitals Occupational Health Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Doctors Health Care Health Care Facilities Health Care Personnel Health Care Workers Hospital Equipment Medical Personnel Nurses Physicians Training
• ISSN:
  0744-6314
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  9-11
• Volume:
  48
• Issue:
  12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20051232
• Citation:
  Nurs Manage 2017 Dec; 48(12):9-11
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2018
• NORA Priority Area:
  Healthcare and Social Assistance
• Performing Organization:
  Columbia University Health Sciences - New York
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20160901
• Source Full Name:
  Nursing Management
• End Date:
  20190831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:30c9fc7f3f570732a0d8265561d9c7199b1798470ed64b907ea950c44db1fe0b8671f098b4c0143b02592c1eb2bdce1e6d69596b8adca21223407a20a2b8f4dc
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/211305/cdc_211305_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 91.32 KB ]