According to Fierce Health Care, A recent review of the sanitation procedures used in hospitals revealed that the practices have huge, unsafe gaps. Jennifer Han, of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, reports that about 80 studies were conducted, and 49 of them evaluated cleaning methods, while 14 examined monitoring strategies. The remainder of the studies analyzed the facilitators.

Han and her colleagues wrote in the Annals of Internal Medicine that only five studies were randomized controlled trials. They concluded that more studies on monitoring strategies and disinfecting methods are necessary in our hospitals.

The results of these trials suggest that more accurate and effective trials are critically important when determining the best hospital cleaning practices in order to prevent harmful infection. The authors of the study further report that the infections in hospitals can be transmitted through bed rails, toilets, tables and other things in a hospital.

Han reported, “The study came about because of a recently increased interest in the role of environmental cleaning and reducing HAIs (health care-associated infections) because there are a lot of newer technologies for disinfection such as ultraviolet (UV) light and hydrogen peroxide vapor.”

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, approximately one in 25 American inpatients get affected by HAIs every day. In 2011, more than 70,000 people in America died from HAIs.