When creating a C&D program, the Infection Prevention Leader should consider:
- What’s the best product for our needs?
- Which areas and surfaces require cleaning with or without disinfection?
- Who is responsible for each area?
- What checklists and SOPs will be needed?
- How do we determine if the C&D program is successful?
The following resources below will help you create an effective Cleaning and Disinfection (C&D) program for your workplace.
Resources to help you choose the right disinfectant
For animal workplaces, you want to look at the following factors to determine if they will be effective for your workplace. They include:
- Spectrum of activity: Is this effective against our pathogens of concern?
- Contact time: Is this fast acting enough for my needs?
- Stability/Shelf life: Does this have a long enough shelf life?
- Sensitivity to organic debris: Is the product easily inactivated by organic matter?
- Safety: Is this safe to use around animals and staff?
- Compatibility: Will this product work with the surfaces in our facility?
- Cost: Is the product prohibitively high in cost?
To learn more about the properties of the ideal disinfectant, see the CDC’s list here.
Once you are familiar with the properties of the ideal disinfectant for your workplace, you can then take a look at properties of disinfectants commonly used in animal care environments to determine which one is best for your needs.
AAHA’s Characteristics of selected disinfectants and Iowa State’s Characteristics of Select Disinfectant Classes does a great job of providing detailed information about various disinfectants used in animal healthcare settings. These tables will help you better understand the efficacy, safety, and suitability of different disinfectants for various applications within veterinary practices.
Resources mentioned:
- CDC’s Properties of of the Ideal Disinfectant
- AAHA’s Characteristics of Selected Disinfectants
- Iowa States Characteristics of Select Disinfectant Classes
Resources to help you identify areas to disinfect and frequency
Think of all of the surfaces in your workplace and consider if they are high risk or low risk.
An example of a table that breaks down the various surfaces, frequencies and the associated cleaning and disinfection requirements can be found on pg 44 of Infection Prevention & Control Best Practices for Small Animal Clinics.
Another tool to help identify the areas that need disinfection is Rescue’s Protocol Builder. The protocol builder will help you identify the areas and surfaces that need disinfection and will build a disinfection SOP based on what you selected.
Control Best Practices For Small Animal Veterinary Clinics)
Resources mentioned:
Resources to assign roles and responsibilities
Establish a point person responsible for the cleaning/disinfection of surfaces/devices in each area.
AAHA provides an example of an Infection Control Roles and Responsibilities table here.
Checklist and SOPs Resources
At the same time, standard operating procedures (SOPs) provide additional details such as why, who and how the cleaning/disinfecting procedures is to be done.
Checklists that summarize the areas/surfaces that need disinfecting as well as their relevant frequency (where and when)can help ensure that nothing gets missed.
Here is AAHA ‘s example of a cleaning and disinfection protocol.
If you are interested in building your own protocol, Rescue’s Protocol Builder can help you build a custom protocol in minutes based on the needs of your facility.
Resources mentioned:
Assessment tools for your C&D program
Once your C&D program is up and running, asses your program on a regular basis by reviewing your C&D checklists, assessing progress with resources such as this Veterinary Practice Biosecurity Tracker and environmental tagging.
To learn more about implementing an effective Cleaning and Disinfection program at your workplace, consider the Infection Prevention Leader Certificate Program which consists of 4 complimentary RACE approved courses and 5 hours CE credit .