Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Feb;26(1):72-80.
doi: 10.1016/j.idh.2020.09.005. Epub 2020 Oct 15.

Re-purposing of domestic steam disinfectors within the hospital-at-home setting

Beverley C Millar  1 , Jonathan Stirling  2 , Mollie Maguire  3 , Rachel E Moore  4 , Alan Murphy  2 , John E Moore  5
Affiliations

Re-purposing of domestic steam disinfectors within the hospital-at-home setting

Beverley C Millar et al. Infect Dis Health. 2021 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Vulnerable patients being cared for in hospital-at-home settings require safe disinfection of their medical devices, including nebulisers and other respiratory equipment. The scale of patients now being cared for in hospital-at-home settings as a result of COVID19 places huge pressure on hospital central sterile services departments (CSSDs) to provide consumable items to safely support such patients' care. This places new importance on the disinfection of mundane objects, including crockery, cutlery and frequently touched objects in the home environment. This study examined temperature performance of steam disinfectors and the consequences of potential operator misuse on the survival of 62 bacteria and yeast organisms.

Methods: Thermal performance of steam disinfectors was evaluated using calibrated thermocouple probes in multiple permutations of device usage with 62 test organisms.

Results: Thermocouple data demonstrated disinfection A0 values of 6000 (upper layer) and 60 (lower layer). Steam disinfection of baby bottles had a thermal lethality of at least A0 = 600. Variation in disinfector temperatures were noted, depending on the geometric location of thermocouples. Additional notable temperature reductions occurred with device underfilling with suboptimal water volumes. Steam disinfection eradicated all 62 non-spore-forming Gram-positive, Gram-negative and yeast organisms tested and eradicated all organisms in the inner teat space of contaminated babies' dummies, rendering safe steam disinfection of babies' dummies.

Conclusion: Domestic steam disinfection offers an inexpensive, simple, versatile and widely available technology for the elimination of common non-spore-forming nosocomial pathogens and safe disinfection of medical devices, fomites and other mundane objects within the hospital-at-home scenario, thereby enhancing patient safety.

Keywords: Babies dummies; Hospital-at-home; Pacifier; Steam disinfection; Steam disinfector; Thermal lethality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Layout and positioning of thermocouple probes used with domestic steam disinfector unit.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Thermal performance of upper level of steam disinfector unit using 90 ml of water.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Morris D.E. Santé service Bayonne: a French approach to home care. Age Ageing. 1983;12:323–328. doi: 10.1093/ageing/12.4.323. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Shepperd S., Iliffe S. Hospital-at-home versus in-patient hospital care. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2001;2:CD000356. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD000356.pub2. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Franzin-Garrec M. Quality of care and risk management in hospital at home services. Soins Chir. 2016;61:47–48. doi: 10.1016/j.soin.2016.02.010. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kampf G., Voss A., Scheithauer S. Inactivation of coronaviruses by heat. J Hosp Infect. 2020;105:348–349. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2020.03.025. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Leclercq I., Batéjat C., Burguière A.M., Manuguerra J.C. Heat inactivation of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2014;8:585–586. doi: 10.1111/irv.12261. - DOI - PMC - PubMed