What has more than 1,500 members  across VCH and requires cleaning multiple times a day? The answer is VCH’s wheelchair fleet that rolls hundreds of patients to different units and floors at all hours. With all that wear and tear, VCH has addressed the need to make sure these wheelchairs are maintained and cleaned with a new, multidisciplinary program that was launched in April at VGH.

“Basically, we didn’t have a consistent process for cleaning and maintaining wheelchairs and we didn’t have any consistent processes in place for wheelchair purchasing, storage, and inventory management – this program takes care of all of that,” explains Patti Erlendson, regional practise lead for occupational therapy who uses wheelchairs regularly for her clients.

Cleaned multiple times

In the past, once a patient was discharged, the wheelchair and cushions were wiped down with a disinfectant cloth. Now, the wheelchairs are cleaned twice: they are wiped down once on the unit and then they are run through an Aqua Phase (“Basically like a big dishwasher for wheelchairs”) and the cushions are thoroughly cleaned. This has reduced the transferral of infection, keeping the patients healthier and the staff happier – it’s a win-win situation.

“Before there were really inconsistent practises for cleaning…there wasn’t really a lot of support,” she says. “Now there is – there are processes in place and there’s a lot of people involved.”

Shared responsibility

“It’s about shared responsibility amongst all shared patient equipment,” says Sydney Scharf, the regional contract manager who helped put the original plan for the program together. “If you’re the user, you’re responsible for cleaning it.”

“This is one big, important step in the whole recipe for infection prevention,” Sydney adds.

Like Patti, Nancy Cho, the regional practise lead for physiotherapy, needs clean, functioning wheelchairs for her staff who provide physical therapy for recovering patients, clients and residents living in complex care facilities.

“Physiotherapists use wheelchairs in their day-to-day practise so to have them clean and working is very important,” she says.

Across VCH

While the program (in pilot mode) has been running at VGH more than three months now, other sites will be expected to  adopt these same practises including UBC, Banfield, and Purdy.

“We are expecting other sites to adopt these practises,” says Patti. “Wheelchairs are important to a hospital.”