Disinfection of the ambulance

[Just Plain Ruff]

Ok, be honest here. After every call do you completely disinfect the ambulance?

Or if you don't completely disinfect it, after what type of call do you perform better than average cleaning.

I know that I'm slacking when it comes to the headaches and strokes and chest pains, I give the unit a quick wipe down.

But do you after you bring in a suspected Communicable disease such as SARS, Flu, N1H1, pneumonia or TB, do you completely disinfect the ambulance. I'll admit I'm lacking in that area.

But I guess my impetus now is that I don't want to bring home any of that crap to my infant daughter or my wife or son.

[mobey]

Ok, be honest here. After every call do you completely disinfect the ambulance?

Or if you don't completely disinfect it, after what type of call do you perform better than average cleaning.

I know that I'm slacking when it comes to the headaches and strokes and chest pains, I give the unit a quick wipe down.

But do you after you bring in a suspected Communicable disease such as SARS, Flu, N1H1, pneumonia or TB, do you completely disinfect the ambulance. I'll admit I'm lacking in that area.

But I guess my impetus now is that I don't want to bring home any of that crap to my infant daughter or my wife or son.

Absolutly not.

On the average blue hair run, we simply wipe down cot, bench, contact points with disenfectant wipes.

On trauma's or infectious disease calls however, we fill a pail with disenfectant and go to town.

We have a low call volume, but once a month we do a "deep clean". Pull everything out of the cabinets, fully extend all seatbelts, remove cot mount, etc etc, and do a real good disenfect.

[Dustdevil]

One time I had a lesbian partner who always wore a "perfume" (if you could call it that), the odour of which could peel paint and tarnish chrome. Nothing could live through that fumigation, so we were pretty safe from germs. Although, I am convinced that the toxicity also killed many brain cells for those few months.

[Chief1C]

I always wipe up anything that's obvious, maybe every surface gets wiped down twice a week, at least once. Now if the patient has flu or respirator symptoms, I wipe it down before we even leave the hospital. Doesn't take that long. We're not that busy. Biozide concentrate mixed into smaller bottles, is my preferred fluid. The cot, scope, cuffs, I wipe off with SaniDex after every patient. The ceiling bars, door bars, etc. We have one of those hand held steam cleaner things like you see Billy Mays advertise at 3am. But instead of just water, I pour in the Biozide too. So, it's like a bunch of birds, with one really big stone. The floor gets cleaned with Spray Nine because I like it's pleasing odor.

[mobey]

One time I had a lesbian partner who always wore a "perfume" (if you could call it that), the odour of which could peel paint and tarnish chrome. Nothing could live through that fumigation, so we were pretty safe from germs. Although, I am convinced that the toxicity also killed many brain cells for those few months.

Was she hot?

[Dustdevil]

Was she hot?

Unfortunately, no. Not even in a tom-boyish way. She looked a lot like the red-headed dork from NYPD Blue/CSI, hair and all. But at least she wasn't fat. Her girlfriend was though (fat, not hott).

[FireMedic65]

I use a spray/cleaner on the stretcher and any other equipment I used, even my scope. If there are fluids, then they get a more thorough cleaning then a simple few sprays and a wipe. The floors get mopped with a cleaner and other surfaces are cleaned with cleaner. Once a month or so, this is done as well. I like my ambulance to have that hospital smell. I work back there, my coworkers work back there, I treat patients back there. My safety means a lot, and I like a clean area.

[scubanurse]

I am a kinda germaphobe and after every call I would use the wipes and wipe down the stretcher, handbars, straps, everything. If it was a communicable disease we would usually spray down all the surfaces and clean everything pretty well. I would clean my stethoscope after every call, and after the nasty ones, I would actually take it apart and soak the pieces in diluted bleach. I hate the idea of other ears on my stethoscope so I wouldn't ever lend mine out to anyone else either. I wish there would be a really easy system for cleaning ambulances like what I got for my shower..that scrubbing bubbles shower spray thing...it works great!

[joesph]

we reviewed this last week no big deal except a lot of the sprays we use are not on contact killers they have to sit awhile.

[mobey]

we reviewed this last week no big deal except a lot of the sprays we use are not on contact killers they have to sit awhile.

You know, I would be interested to check out how important cleaners actually are.

Regular tap water has a minimum of 0.2 mg/l free chlorine available for killing bacteria. It would not surprise me if we do not NEED these heavy duty cleaners at all!