Sustainability efforts can become infection prevention issues for healthcare facilities, according to an article on Contagion Live website.
Energy use, chemical safety and waste reduction can affect patient safety.
For instance, Saskia V. Popescu, a hospital epidemiologist and infection preventionist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in Arizona said hospitals can’t take chances when it comes to cleaning and disinfection.
“Our concern is the ability to disinfect, not the environmental burden,” she said. “I’m not aware of green products that can kill Clostridium difficile or Mycobacterium tuberculosis in two minutes like we need. I’d love if that was an option, but I haven’t been presented with anything like that.”
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