# US 2009/0276239 A1 · Validated healthcare cleaning and sanitizing practices

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- Number: US 2009/0276239 A1
- Document ID: US20090276239A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 12/432,277
- Filed: 2009-04-29
- Published: 2009-11-05
- Earliest claimed: 2008-04-30
- Assignees: Ecolab Inc.
- Inventors: Sally K. Swart; Ryan D. Meek; Kirsten M. Thompson; Kimberly Severin Johnston; Henry L. Carbone, II; Scott P. Lyon; John R. Bucholz
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20090276239A1

## CPC

- A61L 2/00: Disinfection or sterilisation of materials or objects, in general; Accessories therefor
- G06Q 10/06375: {Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change}
- G16H 40/20: for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
- A61L: METHODS OR APPARATUS FOR STERILISING MATERIALS OR OBJECTS IN GENERAL; DISINFECTION, STERILISATION OR DEODORISATION OF AIR; CHEMICAL ASPECTS OF BANDAGES, DRESSINGS, ABSORBENT PADS OR SURGICAL ARTICLES; MATERIALS FOR BANDAGES, DRESSINGS, ABSORBENT PADS OR SURGICAL ARTICLES (preservation of bodies or disinfecting characterised by the agents employed A01N; preserving, e.g. sterilising, food or foodstuffs A23; preparations for medical, dental or toiletry purposes A61K)
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G16H: HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS, i.e. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE HANDLING OR PROCESSING OF MEDICAL OR HEALTHCARE DATA

## Abstract

A validated healthcare facility cleaning and sanitizing system provides a comprehensive and systematic approach to cleaning and sanitizing practices at a hospital or other healthcare facility. The validated hospital cleaning system identifies hospital vectors of contamination; that is, sources through which hospital acquired infections (HAIs) may be spread. The validated system defines a plurality of modules within a healthcare facility, each having an associated cleaning process map designed to meet the particular cleaning and/or sanitizing needs and challenges faced by that module. Various stages of the cleaning process map include validation points, at which certain parameters designed to ensure proper cleaning and/or sanitizing of the module are verified.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A system comprising:
a server computer that receives collected data from a healthcare facility, the collected data based on monitored validation points within a plurality of validation processes for the healthcare facility;
a database coupled to the server computer that stores the collected data from the healthcare facility in association with hospital data that uniquely identifies the healthcare facility; the database further storing module data that defines modules within the healthcare facility and process map data that defines at least one validation process for each module within the healthcare facility;
an analysis application resident on the server computer that analyzes the collected data and generates therefrom validation data indicative of cleanliness of the one or more healthcare facilities; and
a reporting application resident on the server computer that generates reports that characterize the cleanliness of the healthcare facility based on the collected data, the validation data, the hospital data and the module data.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the server computer is located remotely from the healthcare facility.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the server computer is local to the healthcare facility.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the validation points comprises a target parameter specifying a desired characteristic for a component of one of the validation processes.

### Claim 5 (depends on 5)

The system of claim 5, wherein at least one of the validation points comprises a target parameter specifying a minimum disinfectant concentration.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The system of claim 5, wherein the analysis application determines whether a dispensed disinfectant meets the target parameter for the minimum disinfectant concentration.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis application analyzes collected data from a first time period to generate first validation data and collected data from a second time period to generate second validation data.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the reporting application generates a report that compares the first validation data with the second validation data.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the database stores baseline data corresponding to status of the monitored validation points before implementation of the validation processes.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The system of claim 9, wherein the reporting application generates reports comparing collected data from a current time period with the baseline data.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the reporting application generates reports identifying whether the validation points for each module were satisfied.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the reporting application generates reports identifying which validation points in a module were satisfied.

### Claim 13

A method comprising:
identifying contamination vectors of hospital acquired infections within a healthcare facility;
defining a plurality of modules within the healthcare facility, each module associated with a physical area within the healthcare facility or with a function performed within the healthcare facility;
associating each of the plurality of modules with a different one of a plurality of cleaning process maps;
monitoring validation points specified in one or more of the cleaning process maps; and
verifying whether process parameters associated with each monitored validation point are satisfied.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein defining modules within the healthcare facility comprises defining at least one of a patient room module, a critical care module, a central sterile processing module, an operating room module, a food service module, a bathroom module, or a laundry room module.

### Claim 15 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein defining modules comprises defining at least one of a patient skincare module, a wound cleansing module, or a hand hygiene module.

### Claim 16 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, further including correlating each of the plurality of modules with one or more of the contamination vectors.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, further including generating one of the plurality of cleaning process maps based on the associated module and the contamination vectors correlated with the associated module.

### Claim 18 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, further including training staff of the healthcare facility regarding the cleaning process maps.

### Claim 19 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, further including re-training staff of the healthcare facility when the process parameters associated with certain of the monitored validation point are not satisfied.

### Claim 20 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, further including generating validation data based on whether the process parameters associated with each monitored validation point are satisfied.

### Claim 21 (depends on 20)

The method of claim 20, further including generating reports based on the validation data.

### Claim 22

A computer-readable medium comprising instructions that upon execution in a computer of a validated hospital cleaning processing system cause the computer to:
receive collected data from a healthcare facility, the collected data based on monitored validation points within a plurality of validation processes for the healthcare facility;
store the collected data from the healthcare facility in association with hospital data that uniquely identifies the healthcare facility;
store module data that defines modules within the healthcare facility;
store process map data that defines at least one validation process for each module within the healthcare facility;
analyze the collected data with respect to the process map data and generate therefrom validation data indicative of cleanliness of the one or more healthcare facilities; and
generate at least one report that characterizes the cleanliness of the healthcare facility based on the collected data, the validation data, the hospital data and the module data.