Microbial contamination of mobile phones of theatre staff at Chris Hani Baragwanath academic hospital

Abstract

Background A number of concerns have been raised about the use of mobile phones (MP) in the clinical environment. Of these concerns, one of the most important is that MPs may serve as vehicles for microorganisms, as they are in close contact with the body, particularly the face and hands. Thus MPs have the potential to spread nosocomial infections. At Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, MPs are frequently used by theatre staff, in the operating theatre (OT). Method A prospective, contextual, descriptive research design and convenience sampling were used for this study. A total of 66 MPs belonging to anaesthetists and OT nurses were swabbed for contamination. Additional information on the cleaning practices of the MPs was collected. Results All MPs grew microorganisms and 15% had a high level of contamination. Coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) grew on 60.6% of the MPs, Bacillus sp. grew on 46.9% and 21.2% grew more than one species of microorganisms. Half of the theatre staff cleaned their MPs. Of these, 66.7% clean their MPs before leaving work. There was no significant difference in the level of contamination of MPs that were cleaned and those that were not. Conclusion This study demonstrated that 100% of MPs were contaminated with microorganisms. The most prevalent microorganisms isolated in this study were CNS and Bacillus sp. These bacteria are likely to reflect the normal flora of the people handling the MPs