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In a hospital and affiliated long-term care facility, we found that shared wheelchairs were frequently contaminatedwith healthcare-associated pathogens, including Clostridium difficile spores. A network graph of 851 wheelchair transports over 3days demonstrated frequent movement between inpatient wards andoutpatient clinics, radiology, and physical therapy. These results highlight the potential for shared wheelchairs to serve as a vector for pathogen transmission., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: Wheelchairs are complex equipment that come in close contact with individuals at increased risk of transmitting and acquiring antibiotic-resistant organisms and health care-associated infection. The purpose of this study was to determine the status of wheelchair cleaning and disinfection in Canadian health care facilities., Methods: Acute care hospitals (ACHs), chronic care hospitals (CCHs), and long-term care facilities (LTCFs) were contacted and the individual responsible for oversight of wheelchair cleaning and disinfection was identified. A structured interview was conducted that focused on current practices and concerns, barriers to effective wheelchair cleaning and disinfection, and potential solutions., Results: Interviews were completed at 48 of the 54 facilities contacted (89%), including 18 ACHs, 16 CCHs, and 14 LTCFs. Most (n = 24) facilities had 50-200 in-house wheelchairs. Respondents were very concerned about wheelchair cleaning as an infection control issue. Specific concerns included the lack of reliable systems for tracking and identifying dirty and clean wheelchairs (71%, 34/48), failure to clean and disinfect wheelchairs between patients (52%, 25/48), difficulty cleaning cushions (42%, 20/48), lack of guidelines (35%, 27/48), continued use of visibly soiled wheelchairs (29%, 14/48) and lack of resources (25%, 12/48)., Conclusion: Our results suggest that wheelchair cleaning and disinfection is not optimally performed at many Canadian hospitals and LTCFs. Specific guidance on wheelchair cleaning and disinfection is necessary., (Copyright © 2014 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Transmission of nosocomial pathogens has been linked to transient colonization of health care workers, medical devices and other constituents of patients' environment. In this paper we present our findings concerning the presence of pathogenic bacteria on wheelchairs, and the possibility that wheelchairs constitute a reservoir of these bacteria and a means of spreading them. In this work we examined four wheelchairs, each from a different location: the internal medicine ward, the emergency department, the general surgery ward and wheelchair stockpile of the transportation unit of the hospital. The samples were collected and cultured on different media. Bacterial identification and antimicrobial sensitivity testing were carried out using accepted practices in the microbiology laboratory. We found that wheelchairs are contaminated with several pathogenic bacteria, among them antibiotic-resistant strains such as MRSA, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumanni etc. Since there is no specific guideline protocol that deals with disinfection and cleaning frequency of wheelchairs in hospitals, we suggest each hospital to write one.