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Tip of the week: Pay attention to sink design and placement

Infection Control Weekly Monitor, December 17, 2008

The design and placement of handwashing sinks in the rooms of transplant patients at Toronto General Hospital in Canada were responsible for an outbreak of bacterial infections that killed 12 patients and sickened two dozen others, an investigation has revealed.

The outbreak occurred at the hospital between December 2004 and March 2006, but never received much public attention. However, infection control specialists tracked down the source of the multi-drug resistant bacteria behind the outbreak and found— ironically—that the sinks designed to prevent the spread of infections were the culprit, reported The Canadian Press.

Each single-patient room in the medical and surgical ICU had its own hand hygiene station, with sinks located just over a meter from the head of the patient’s bed and adjacent to a counter top healthcare workers used to prepare medication and sterile dressings for the patient, the news service reported. The sinks had shallow basins and high, gooseneck spouts that flowed directly into the drain, so that pressure from the spout splashed water, spraying nearby surfaces.

If the sink drain contained Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacteria that thrives in drains but poses no threat to healthy people, it meant the sink showered the countertop and maybe even the bed with droplets of bacteria-laced water—a dangerous threat to organ transplant patients with weakened immune systems. The hospital removed the sinks and installed new sinks with a different design and a splash guard.

Results of the investigation were published in the January issue of the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. Click here to read more.

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