JCAHO has never asked to see environmental surface cultures. They do go over
our Infectious Disease protocols with a find tooth comb. We have always
passed with little or no problems.
In the past year we have done exactly 1 environmental culture. That was on a
bronch scope that had been recalled for suspected Pseudomonas contamination
due to a loose screw or fitting. When we got the unit back the 1st 2
patients had a pneumonia (Staph and E. coli in one and a febrile event in
the other). We cultured the unit and found no growth.
--
John Gentile President, Rhode Island Apple Group
yjgent at cox.net RIAG Web page: www.wbwip.com/riag/
"I never make mistakes, I only have unexpected learning opportunities!"
> From: enigl at aol.com (Davin C. Enigl)
> Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net> Newsgroups: bionet.microbiology
> Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2002 01:13:15 GMT
> Subject: Re: operating theatre environmental monitoring
>>> I am told, JCAHO inspects all of this data and we get into trouble if
> we don't have it.
>
