What Disinfecting Oversights Are Most Common in the Veterinary Setting?

Meri Hall, RVT, CVT, LVT, LATG, VTS (SAM), veterinary technician of internal medicine, from Veterinary Specialty Hospital of Palm Beach Gardens, explains the most common disinfecting oversights that occurr in the veterinary setting.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“When we have animals come in, they are on a flat surface on the table, we’re not giving a good 10-minute contact time for our cleaners to work because we don’t have the time to do that, so it’s [more of] a quick spray/wipe. [Because of this], we are ending up with a lot of the diseases and viruses still being on the surfaces.

The other thing that I really see is cage cleaning. People forget that there are seven sides to a cage. Most people think they’re six, but what they don’t remember is that the outside of the cage also needs to be cleaned and disinfected, just as well as the inside of it, especially if they have the wire bars. Those can hold materials [and] body fluids, in those little cracks and crevices. A lot of places aren’t removing those doors and doing a routine cleaning on a basis or a rotating basis, whether it be every day, a week, a month, [or] a quarter.

Those are the major problems that I see. Also, doctors aren’t cleaning their stethoscopes [well].”