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Study: One-third of hospital toilets insufficiently cleaned

Quality Improvement Monitor, May 16, 2008

One third of patient toilets in a Canadian study of hospitals were found to be insufficiently cleaned. The study, published by BMC Infectious Diseases was done in an effort to see whether the toilets of patients with Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) were being effectively cleaned, hence lowering the risk of spreading CDAD throughout the hospital. The study compared toilets of patients in isolation with CDAD with patients who were suffering from diarrhea unrelated to CDAD. This measurement was done by putting an ultraviolet visible marker, in the form of a substance called "Glitterbug" on the underside toilet seats of these patients. Glitterbug comes off easily with soap and water. Researchers measured to see how much of the substance was left 24 hours later.

The study found that toilets of those patients in isolation with CDAD were less clean, with a score of 1.23 (on a scale of 0-3, with 0 being no Glitterbug and 3 being a lot of Glitterbug). The other toilets had a score of 0.9. Researchers recommend this type of study be replicated in other hospitals to gauge the cleanliness of patient toilets.

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