Cleaning and decontamination of care equipment is essential to reduce the spread of infection when infection therefore: 

• use single-use items where possible
• non-invasive, reusable, care equipment should be dedicated to the isolation room and decontaminated prior to use on another resident  see Section 1.5. Safe Management of Care Equipment
• an increased frequency of decontamination should be considered for non-invasive, reusable, care equipment when used in resident isolation rooms
• detergent, disinfectant or combination products should be prepared and used according to manufacturer instructions including chemical concentration, application style and contact time, whilst taking into account the specific equipment manufacturers instructions.

A flowchart describing the decontamination of non-invasive care equipment is available Appendix 7.

 

Read the Safe management of non-invasive, reusable shared care equipment literature review.