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Effectiveness of dry hydrogen peroxide in reducing air and surface bioburden in a multicenter clinical setting
Don Wright1, Jacqueline Christie2, Jordan Lawrence3
1Universal Health Services, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
Objective:
To determine the effectiveness of dry hydrogen peroxide (DHP) in reducing environmental bioburden in occupied areas.
Design:
Prospective environmental cohort study.
Setting:
The study was conducted in 2 tertiary-care hospitals and 1 free-standing emergency department.
Intervention:
Environmental air and surface sites were cultured before and after continuous deployment of DHP systems in targeted hospital areas.
Methods:
In total, 1,554 surface and 1,036 air samples were collected from 74 patient areas among the 3 facilities on 3 consecutive days before DHP deployment and on days 14, 30, 60, and 90 after deployment. At each sampling time, 2 air samples were collected at each facility from 1 room without DHP, along with 2 outdoor samples from each facility. The impact of negative-pressure usage on the efficacy of DHP was also evaluated, with 1 hospital continuously using negative pressure, another utilizing it only in patient isolation scenarios, and another without negative pressure.
Results:
In the 2 facilities without continuous negative pressure, exposure to DHP was associated with a significant reduction in surface bioburden, characterized as total colony-forming units (P = .019; P = .002). Significant associations between DHP exposure and reductions in airborne bacterial load at the 2 hospitals were observed (P ≤ .001; P = .041), and the free-standing emergency department experienced a reduction that did not achieve statistical significance (P = .073).
Conclusions:
Our findings confirm that DHP has the potential to reduce microbial air and surface bioburden in occupied patient rooms with standard ventilation parameters.
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