The results of a study show that better educating environmental services workers leads to an improvement in surface cleaning and decrease in hospital-onset C. difficile infection (CDI).

The study, titled "Sustained improvement in hospital cleaning associated with a novel education and culture change program for environmental services workers" and published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, was conducted across multiple hospitals. It involved more than 350 frontline service workers participating in educational programs.

The programs combined education techniques, such as videos, demonstrations and role-playing, to cover a wide range of topics, including hand hygiene, isolation precautions, personal protective equipment, cleaning protocols and barriers to cleaning.

Researchers evaluated the effects of the education on workers' performance in cleaning individual high-touch surfaces. The results showed that the frequency of cleaning such surfaces in occupied rooms increased from 26% to 62%, with improvement sustained for a year following the education.

Furthermore, a significant decrease in CDI was associated with the program.