Thankfully, the days when nurses have to mop the floors are far behind us, but we do occasionally find ourselves cleaning a monitor, a bed, or a pump when we need a piece of equipment in a hurry.

The Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration have jointly issued a public health notification to anyone who uses liquid disinfectants to clean electronic medical equipment.

Reports of equipment fires and other damage, equipment malfunction, and healthcare worker burns were traced to equipment damage incurred when liquid disinfectants were used inappropriately to clean electronic equipment such as infusion pumps, ventilators, infant antiabduction sensors, and handheld monitors-essentially any piece of equipment with unsealed electronic circuitry or components. Equipment malfunctions could result in burns and life-threatening events such as overinfusion of medications, loss of life-supporting drug therapy, or loss of patient ventilation.

The root cause of the problem was believed to be corrosion of electronic circuitry by disinfecting or cleaning solutions that penetrated the equipment housings. This occurred when the healthcare worker sprayed the housing with the cleaning solution, immersed the item, or used a towel or other linen soaked with cleaning solution to clean the housing. These practices are not consistent with manufacturers' recommended cleaning instructions, which usually specify wiping with a soft cloth dampened with a mild detergent and water.

This public health notification recommends that healthcare facilities review manufacturers' cleaning recommendations for equipment that might be susceptible to these hazards. Every effort should be made to prevent this equipment from contamination with biologic material.

Procedures for disinfection should be determined and staff should be properly trained in these procedures. For more information, refer to the complete public health notification at: http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/safety/103107-cleaners.html.