Protect Patients from Pests

How to identify and eliminate bedbugs and other pests

Even when we keep our facility sterile, bedbugs and other pests may be carried in on patients’ or their family’s clothes or possessions, causing infestations in mattresses, upholstered furniture, cracks and crevices. It is important that you make your best effort to discover infestations to avoid assigning a patient to an infested room. Follow these guidelines for recognizing infestations and taking care of them.

Identify Infestations

As soon as any room is vacated, carefully inspect it, searching for living or dead bugs, small bloodstains from crushed bugs or dark spots from their droppings.

If you spot any of these signs of infestation, notify your supervisor immediately so the room is not assigned to a patient.

If You Discover Pests

After you’ve notified your supervisor, there are a number of procedures you should follow to ensure that the room is as clean as possible.

• Use a stiff brush to dislodge bedbugs and eggs.
• Use a HEPA vacuum on the mattress, bed frame, furniture, floor and carpet, and discard the vacuum bag in a sealed plastic bag.
• Bag mattresses and box springs and put in storage for at least one year.

Even once you have thoroughly cleaned the room, applying a pesticide may be necessary, which requires the assistance of an extermination professional.

Pesticides

When we discover an infestation, we may apply pesticide in the room to make sure we’ve gotten rid of all the bugs. It is important that you keep out of rooms that have had a pesticide application because the chemical can be harmful to your health. The exterminator or your supervisor will advise you when it is safe to enter. If you are not sure whether it is safe to enter a room, ask your supervisor. Also, be sure to follow all procedures of the National Strategies for Health Care Providers Pesticide Initiative when working with or around pesticides or pesticide-treated rooms.

If a Patient Discovers Pests

Even when you do your best to identify pest infestations, they may happen nonetheless. When a patient complains, take the following action immediately:

• Move the patient to a new room.
• Provide information about the pests, emphasizing the fact that they are not known to spread disease.
• Launder the patient’s clothes. Wash them in the hottest water possible, then dry them for an hour on the hottest setting possible.
• Ensure that no other patient will be assigned to the room until it is safe to do so.

Discover Pests

After you’ve notified your supervisor, there are a number of procedures you should follow to ensure that the room is as clean as possible.

• Use a stiff brush to dislodge bedbugs and eggs.
• Use a HEPA vacuum on the mattress, bed frame, furniture, floor and carpet, and discard the vacuum bag in a sealed plastic bag.
• Bag mattresses and box springs and put in storage for at least one year.

Even once you have thoroughly cleaned the room, applying a pesticide may be necessary, which requires the assistance of an extermination professional.

Pesticides

When we discover an infestation, we may apply pesticide in the room to make sure we’ve gotten rid of all the bugs. It is important that you keep out of rooms that have had a pesticide application because the chemical can be harmful to your health. The exterminator or your supervisor will advise you when it is safe to enter. If you are not sure whether it is safe to enter a room, ask your supervisor. Also, be sure to follow all procedures of the National Strategies for Health Care Providers Pesticide Initiative when working with or around pesticides or pesticide-treated rooms.

If a Patient Discovers Pests

Even when you do your best to identify pest infestations, they may happen nonetheless. When a patient complains, take the following action immediately:

• Move the patient to a new room.
• Provide information about the pests, emphasizing the fact that they are not known to spread disease.
• Launder the patient’s clothes. Wash them in the hottest water possible, then dry them for an hour on the hottest setting possible.
• Ensure that no other patient will be assigned to the room until it is safe to do so.

This flyer is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical or legal advice. © 2010, 2018 Zywave, Inc. All rights reserved