Do you remember going to the dentist as a child, brushing your teeth and then chewing little red tablets that highlighted areas you missed? No? Okay, so I remember doing that and I was always surprised at how many areas I missed! In a similar way, a color additive disinfectant could be a game changer in cleaning practices. I also remember training direct care staff on handwashing, same idea, staff applied a product called “GloGerm”, washed their hands and then used a special light to show areas they missed!

Well fast forward to today and yes, we are still playing with colors but in this study, researchers added a color additive to standard hospital disinfectant wipes and found that rooms were 69.2% cleaner! Think about it, you are cleaning a resident room with disinfectant wipes, you wipe down the overbed table, how do you know if you missed anything? In this study, the color additive disinfectant made it possible to see the areas you cleaned and if you missed any areas of the equipment. Within 3 minutes the color is gone, and the equipment was thoroughly sanitized!

In this study, 92% of surfaces sampled prior to cleaning were positive for microbial colonies. After disinfection, rooms cleaned with standard wipes still had microbes present on 60% of surfaces sample, while rooms cleaned using color additive saw the microbial presence reduced to 31%; a 48% improvement! How simple is this? Think about how fast infections can spread in your center, this might be a great addition to your environmental team’s cleaning protocols! Check it out! Stay well and stay informed!