HiCare™ Bath, Making Beds & Infection Control
We have introduced the HiCare ™ Bath technology elsewhere on this site and have said that one advantage of bed-bathing patients using HiCare ™ Bath cloths is that the sheets don’t get wet, as they do with conventional bed-bathing and bowls of water.
When you think about it the [conventional] bowl of water, to bed-bath a patient, rapidly becomes a ‘bacteria soup’ as soon as you dip the washcloth into the bowl.
Bugs are being transferred from one part of the body, to every other part as you move the washcloth from the face to the feet!! Then you have to carry the bowl to the pan-room to pour the [bacteria soup] water out – aerosolising the water and the bugs!!
Who needs it? Use HiCare ™ Bath instead. Sheets may not need to be changed and laundered — saving time, money and water!
Not having to change sheets means there are fewer opportunities for micro-organisms to be dispersed into the air as sheets are pulled off the bed and (thrown!) into the linen skip.
Micro-organisms flying through the air will land on you, the other patients, curtains, trolleys and fomites such as tourniquets and sphygmomanometer cuffs.
Read more about these infection control issues on this website, in particular fomites and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) , a major culprit in cross-infection.
Meanwhile a few tips to reduce cross-infection when changing sheets:
Why not print off the table & paste it in the linen cupboard, pan room – give each of your staff a copy!! Help them to help themselves.
| Do’s | Don’ts |
| • Remove sheets from the bed slowly – keep the bugs in | • Do not pull sheets off the bed at speed – this will disperse bugs |
| • Place in linen skip slowly | • Do not throw sheets into the skip |
| • After removing sheets from the bed, clean your hands with a waterless ethanol gel /liquid | • Don’t touch the clean sheets until you have cleaned your hands with a waterless ethanol gel /liquid |
| • If the sheets are wet/soiled with urine, blood, faeces etc, wash your hands under running water first | • Do not touch anything with hands that have been in contact with urine, blood, faeces etc.– this will just spread bacteria |
| • Keep clean & dirty linen separate (trolley & skip) | • Do not balance clean sheets on top of the dirty skip to push around |
| • Please put pillows and bedspreads on a chair | • Don’t put pillows and bedspreads on the floor or another patient’s bed |
Why use an alcohol gel handrub?
- The concentration of ethanol will kill bacteria on the hands without making your skin dry and sore
- I find the alcohol gel is much kinder to my skin.
- Using ethanol gel is equal, or superior, to hand washing liquid & water
- It’s fast – rubbing an ethanol gel on your hands between every patient care activity takes a matter of seconds
- Going to a hand-basin to wash and dry hands takes much longer – perhaps that is one reason why it isn’t done as often as it should be
