How Clean is Your Ambulance?
The truth behind cleaning chemicals

Katherine West, BSN, MSEd, CIC, infections control consultant for Infection Control/Emerging Concepts, Inc., says she’s often amazed at how many cleaning products most EMS agencies use. “You can consolidate and save money,” she says. “You don’t need the toxic products some departments use.”

According to West, the driving force behind selecting a chemical to clean an ambulance should be the type of organism the chemical is meant to eliminate. With the single exception of Clostridium difficile (commonly known as C diff), which requires a chlorine-based cleaning product, most ambulance providers

need only low-level products.

For example, HIV doesn’t survive outside the body: It’s killed by light and air, so there’s no need to be concerned about it. There’s also no data to show that Hepatitis C survives outside the body. The real concern is Hepatitis B (HBV). “HBV has been shown in one study to survive up to seven days in the presence of dried blood on stainless steel in a hemodialysis center,” West says.

What’s your plan? Every EMS agency must have an exposure control plan. This plan must clearly state how each piece of equipment and vehicle is to be

cleaned, using the brand name of the cleaning products to be used. West recommends a simple, single sheet protocol that can be laminated and is easily available to employees. “This is a 3 a.m. reference,” she says. “It’s not that difficult to put together.” By Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements, this document needs to be updated every year at a minimum, says West.

The plan should also include a cleaning schedule. Providers must

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INSIDE
Addressing Fatigue Risk
Management in the Workplace
Physicians develop guidance statement

In February, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine’s Presidential Task Force on fatigue risk management published a guidance statement intended to assist in the design and implementation of a fatigue risk-management system (FRMS). Occupational and environmental medicine physicians are often consulted by organizations attempting to address fatigue as a risk factor in the workplace.

According to the guidelines, fatigue is similar to other risk factors that can be managed. The document outlines the features of developing a system to manage risks due to fatigue and provides background and references to help develop, sustain and promote a FRMS.