Validated healthcare cleaning and sanitizing practices

• US 8,990,098 B2
• Filed: 04/29/2009
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ecolab USA Incorporated (Ecolab, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Ecolab, Inc.
• Inventors: Swart, Sally K., Meek, Ryan D., Thompson, Kirsten M., Johnston, Kimberly Severin, Carbone, Henry L. II, Lyon, Scott P., Bucholz, John R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pauls, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TRANG T
• Application Number:
  US12/432,277
• Publication Number:
  US 20090276239A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,155 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/3
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2/00 Methods or apparatus for disinfecting or sterilising materials or objects other than foodstuffs or contact lenses; Accessories therefor for contact lenses A61L12/00; atomisers for disinfecting agents A61M; sterilisation of packages or package contents in association with packaging B65B55/00; treatment of water, waste water, sewage or sludge C02F; disinfecting paper D21H21/36; disinfecting devices for water closets E03D; articles having provision for disinfection, see the relevant subclasses for these articles, e.g. H04R1/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms

Abstract

A validated healthcare facility cleaning and sanitizing system provides a comprehensive and systematic approach to cleaning and sanitizing practices at a hospital or other healthcare facility. The validated hospital cleaning system identifies hospital vectors of contamination; that is, sources through which hospital acquired infections (HAIs) may be spread. The validated system defines a plurality of modules within a healthcare facility, each having an associated cleaning process map designed to meet the particular cleaning and/or sanitizing needs and challenges faced by that module. Various stages of the cleaning process map include validation points, at which certain parameters designed to ensure proper cleaning and/or sanitizing of the module are verified.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a server computer that receives collected data from a healthcare facility, the collected data based on monitored validation points within a plurality of cleaning process maps for the healthcare facility, each of the cleaning process maps corresponding to a different one of a plurality of modules within the healthcare facility and defining housekeeping procedures associated with the corresponding module;

a database coupled to the server computer that stores the collected data from the healthcare facility in association with hospital data that uniquely identifies the healthcare facility, that stores module data that defines each of the plurality of modules within the healthcare facility, and that stores the plurality of cleaning process maps in association with the corresponding module data;

an analysis application resident on the server computer that analyzes the collected data and generates therefrom validation data indicative of adherence to the housekeeping procedures within the healthcare facility; and

a reporting application resident on the server computer that generates reports that characterize the cleanliness of the healthcare facility based on the collected data, the validation data, the hospital data and the module data;

each cleaning process map further including a storage process and a validation process, the storage process defining storage conditions for cleaning products, tools, and textiles, the validation process defining one or more of the validation points indicative of cleanliness of the associated module within the healthcare facility, the validation process further defining a monitoring procedure for each of the one more validation points and identifying corrective action in the event that one or more of the validation points are not satisfied.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the server computer is located remotely from the healthcare facility.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the server computer is local to the healthcare facility.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the validation points comprises a target parameter specifying a desired characteristic for a component of one of the validation processes.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the validation points comprises a target parameter specifying a minimum disinfectant concentration.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the analysis application determines whether a dispensed disinfectant meets the target parameter for the minimum disinfectant concentration.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis application analyzes collected data from a first time period to generate first validation data and collected data from a second time period to generate second validation data.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the reporting application generates a report that compares the first validation data with the second validation data.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the database stores baseline data corresponding to status of the monitored validation points before implementation of the validation processes.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the reporting application generates reports comparing collected data from a current time period with the baseline data.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the reporting application generates reports identifying whether the validation points for each module were satisfied.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the reporting application generates reports identifying which validation points in a module were satisfied.

13. The system of claim 1 further including at least one input device into which the collected data is entered.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the at least one input device includes one or more of a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, or a cell phone.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the at least one input device comprises an electronic device into which the collected data is entered.

16. A method comprising:

storing, in a database, a plurality of modules within the healthcare facility, each module associated with a physical area within the healthcare facility or with a function performed within the healthcare facility;

associating each of the plurality of modules with a different one of a plurality of cleaning process maps;

storing, in the database, the plurality of cleaning process maps, each of the cleaning process maps defining housekeeping procedures for the associated module, each cleaning process map further including a storage process and a validation process, the storage process defining storage conditions for cleaning products, tools, and textiles, the validation process defining one or more of the validation points indicative of cleanliness of the associated module within the healthcare facility, the validation process further defining a monitoring procedure for each of the one more validation points and identifying corrective action in the event that one or more of the validation points are not satisfied;

receiving, at a processor, collected data associated with monitored validation points specified in one or more of the cleaning process maps; and

analyzing the collected data, using the processor, to generate validation data indicative of adherence to the housekeeping procedures within the healthcare facility.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein defining modules within the healthcare facility comprises defining at least one of a patient room module, a critical care module, a central sterile processing module, an operating room module, a food service module, a bathroom module, or a laundry room module.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein defining modules comprises defining at least one of a patient skincare module, a wound cleansing module, or a hand hygiene module.

19. The method of claim 16, further including correlating each of the plurality of modules with one or more contamination vectors.

20. The method of claim 19, further including generating one of the plurality of cleaning process maps based on the associated module and the contamination vectors correlated with the associated module.

21. The method of claim 16, further including training staff of the healthcare facility regarding the cleaning process maps.

22. The method of claim 16, further including re-training staff of the healthcare facility when the process parameters associated with certain of the monitored validation point are not satisfied.

23. The method of claim 16, further including generating validation data, using the processor, based on whether the process parameters associated with each monitored validation point are satisfied.

24. The method of claim 23, further including generating reports, using the processor, based on the validation data.

25. The method of claim 16 further comprising entering the collected data into an input device.

26. The method of claim 16 further comprising entering the collected data into at least one of a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, or a cell phone.

27. The method of claim 16 further comprising entering the collected data into an electronic device.

28. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that upon execution in a computer of a validated hospital cleaning processing system cause the computer to:

receive collected data from a healthcare facility, the collected data based on monitored validation points within a plurality of validation processes for the healthcare facility;

store the collected data from the healthcare facility in association with hospital data that uniquely identifies the healthcare facility;

store module data that defines modules within the healthcare facility;

store process map data that defines at least one cleaning process map for each module within the healthcare facility, each of the cleaning process maps defining housekeeping procedures for the associated module, each cleaning process map further including a storage process and a validation process, the storage process defining storage conditions for cleaning products, tools, and textiles, the validation process defining one or more of the validation points indicative of cleanliness of the associated module within the healthcare facility, the validation process further defining a monitoring procedure for each of the one more validation points and identifying corrective action in the event that one or more of the validation points are not satisfied;

analyze the collected data with respect to the process map data and generate therefrom validation data indicative of adherence to the housekeeping procedures within the healthcare facility; and

generate at least one report that characterizes adherence to the housekeeping procedures within the healthcare facility based on the collected data, the validation data, the hospital data and the module data.