Terminally Cleaned Room

We had just discharged a patient who had MRSA, VRE and C Dif. All of these are highly infectious organisms, two of which are virtually incurable. The housekeeper was told to terminally clean the room, a term that none us had ever heard before.

Curious, I sat outside the room and watched it being cleaned. It looked like a routine cleaning to me. As usual, the telephone, TV remote and call light were not cleaned. What was different was that the linens were dumped in the trash.

What's odd is this patient had been here for several weeks with her raging infections and every time her sheets were changed, they were put in with the rest of the dirty laundry. That's our policy. We're not in the habit of burning or burying dirty sheets. So, who's crazy here? Why do we put dirty sheets in the laundry when the patient is still here, but throw them out once the patient is discharged?

The grossest part for me was when I had to give her my pen to sign her discharge papers. When she handed it back to me, it was covered with tiny bits of flaky, dry skin from her whole body rash. I washed my pen, but it still feels dirty. And now my hands feel dirty and everything my hands have touched feel dirty and...Is this how OCD starts?

The next occupant of the room was a doctor who, of course, had to have a private room. If he only knew.

This is a lesson to everyone. Don't ever request a private room in a hospital. They are usually used for isolation patients and the room cleaning between patients is less than ideal. Request a ward. That's where the clean patients are kept.