Disinfection of the ambulance

[Chief1C]

Assuming they have a community water source. However, we have a well, there's no municipal water in the town which the station is located. I don't like to use bleach products anyway, unless I'm cleaning up a large volume of body fluids. I've used those Clorox wipes, but it discolors the stainless steel counter tops. Though, our water is sulfur scented.

[Richard B the EMT]

Guess I should have taken a business card from a vender at the convention I just returned from. He sells a device that "dry-sprays" a disinfectant into an ambulance (taped to an open window), sterilizing the entire interior in about a half hour.

He also fronts for the Plymo-vent system, keeping vehicle exhaust fumes out of the apparatus floor.

[Redcell19512]

I wipe down the patient compartment and crew area at the start of every shift with an alcohol based disinfectant (we bought the same stuff the local hospitals use). I also sweep and wet mop the floor. The litter gets wiped down after every call. I typically only "decon" the truck after a call if there's blood or other body fluids or if the pt had a fever and a cough. If I have a patient that has nausea, vomiting, diarrhea I'll wipe down the litter and any area near the patient in the ambulance with the sodium hypocholorite wipes that we have. The down side is that many people don't like the bleach odor (go work at McDonalds, the fries smell good) and it leaves a residue when it dries. The residue is easy to deal with, just wipe it down with a wet towel and hand dry. Takes a bit more time to do but there's two of us on the truck so it really shoudln't be a problem.

[emtgrimreaper]

no we just wipe down the cot for headaches and such. but on trauma's with blood squirting then we wipe down everything.

[tniuqs]

I use the open door technique ... why do all that work when its - 40 C ... and nothing survives in that

Seriously no matter how well you wipe surfaces down it is quite dependent on the type of anti infecting agent used, cheapest and most cost effective agent is Bleach because it can kill TB a very resilient spore producing bad bug ... and in passing generally speaking if I started doing swabs and cultures on any gut wagon one would be astounded at what can be grown in a petri dish. I laugh out loud when I see the label claiming that the "cleaner" kills the Aids virus ... and it doesn't survive out of the human body for more than 90 seconds.

cheers and happy deep cleaning

[Miss Sasha]

When I come on shift, the entire ambulance gets cleaned. Seats, buttons, steering wheel, door handles, all patient care equipment, floors are swept then mopped with a water/bleach/some kind of cleaner mix.

Some people at my service don't seem to think that because the patient never really "touched" the stretcher (on bed sheets from the sheet lift, or our blue sheet) or if they are not on isolation percautions or leaking fluids that we don't need to clean everything... however, many of my patients ARE on isolation percautions or immunocompromised and I'd rather not play russian roulette with my patient's (or mine either!) health and wellbeing, so I/my partner wipe down all used patient care equipment (stethescope, BP cuff, change the pillow case, pulse ox, monitor leads, stretcher including the stretcher handles and up and down buttons, etc).

We use whatever my company provides us with. Usually sani wipes but lately we've been getting some kind of thick foamy wipes with bleach that I like a lot better than the cancer wipes.

[Kiwiology]

We use disinfectant spray and paper towels but if we get a really nasty job we can go back to the station and mop the truck out