Ambulance Associated Infections and Hygiene

Objective: because of the ambulance has the same cabin for both the patient and the healthcare staff and the risk of injury with piercing tools, it is clear that healthcare personnel should be trained in providing ambulance hygiene and taking preventive measures against infectious diseases. this research aimed to investigate the presence of pathogenic microorganisms which may be an infection source in the ambulances providing emergency services in sakarya province center and its districts and to evaluate the knowlodge, attitudes and behaviors of the staff at these ambulances during and after the ambulance service. material-method: between january 2016 and july 2016, a total of 25 ambulances serving in the province center and districts and a total of 104 people working in these ambulances were included in the study. a questionnaire was applied to the health personnel who provided ambulance services in the study and also microorganisms were screened in swab specimens taken from risky areas of ambulances. results: a total of 104 people, participated in the study and 95 (91.3%) were working in 112 emergency service ambulances and 9 were working in hospital ambulance (8.7%). of the ambulance workers, 83 (79.8%) said they had received medical waste training, while only 54 (51.9%) reported that their colleagues paid attention to hand hygiene. the cleaning rate of the ambulance patient cabinet was reported to be as 29.8% after each case, 49% daily and cleaning rate was 75% for instruments requiring high level disinfection such as laryngoscope, and 28.8% for instruments requiring low level disinfection such as tension device. when swab specimens were evaluated, sphingomonas paucimobilis was found in 20 samples, acinetobacter iwoffii in 2 samples, staphylococcus aureus in 2 samples, klebsiella pneumoniae in 2 samples and coagulase negative staphylococci in 20 samples. conclusions: as a result of our work; ambulance workers need to raise their awareness of both themselves and their patients to protect against infectious diseases as well as ambulance hygiene. a more stringent infection control and monitoring protocol should be applied to prevent the ambulance from becoming a source of contamination.