Ambulance hygiene; current situation and requirements

INTRODUCTİON AND AIM: Ambulance personel and the patient being transporte dare likely to be exposed to any kind of infection during any medical practice. This research, which is the first in its field, aims to investigate the presence of MRSA and carbapenemase resistant Enterobacteriae, which may be an infection source, in the ambulances serving emergency services in Sakarya province center and its districts and the knowledge attitudes and attitudes towards the hygiene applications during and after the ambulance service behaviors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 25 ambulances and 104 ambulance workers were included in the survey to provide emergency services in the Sakarya region .A questionnaire consisting of 30 questions was applied to the participants and swab specimens were taken from the identified risk areas and the factors that may be exposed to the patientS and ambulance personnel in the screening cultures were evaluated. Samples were incubated at 35-37°C on Bloed Agar, Eosin Methylene Blue, Chocolate Agar and Sabouraud Dextroz Agar media. Identification of the breeding bacteria and their antimicrobial susceptibilities were carried out in an automated system. The presence of carbapenemase has been in vestigated by phenotypical and moleculartests, and isolated staphylococci were investigate dusing molecular commercial tests. RESULTS: In the study, methicillin resistant staphylococci, phenobarbital resistant Klebsiella spp., Which phenotypically produces carbapenemase, and Sphingomonas paucimobilis, Which can cause gastrointestinal infections, have been isolated. As a result of the survey, it was determined that 36.5% of ambulance worker sneed training on ambulance hygiene. CONCLUSION: In ambulances, infection control and monitoring protocols should be applied to prevent contamination, training should be held to eliminated eficiencies and torais awareness. Keywords: Ambulance, carbapenemase, hospital infections, swab samples