MONITORING OF AIRCONDITIONING SYSTEMS, HYDROTHERAPY POOLS, FOOD AND WATER IN THE
HOSPITAL ENVIRONMENT
G. Pinna B App Sc (Med Tech) B Sc MASM
MAIRAH
Manager of Biotech Laboratories Pty Ltd,
Brisbane, Queensland. |
A high proportion of hospitalised patients are immunocompromised due to either therapy,
medical condition or surgical procedure and as such are more susceptible than the general
population to infectious agents if present in the hospital environment. This paper reviews
the presence of Legionella species from 20,149 cooling tower water samples from
both hospital and commercial premises over a three year period from April 1992 to March
1995. The highest monthly Legionella isolate rate was 20.4% of samples tested and
there was an increased isolation rate in the summer and early autumn months.Based on these results, maintaining a cooling tower to the
Australian Standard AS3666 and performing three monthly tower cleans is not sufficient to
guarantee a continued absence or a low level of contamination by Legionella.
Recommendations are provided on the usefulness and frequency of regular testing of cooling
tower water for plate count (total bacteria count) and Legionella in relation to
Australian Standard AS3666, Australian Standards handbook HB-32, Victorian and New South
Wales Health department guidelines in the absence of Queensland guidelines.
The paper also examines additional laboratory analyses
available to infection control practitioners for monitoring; internal building surfaces
and airconditioning systems for air filter efficiency, hydrotherapy pool water quality to
appropriate National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines, potable water
quality of both bottled water and bubbler dispensers to NHMRC guidelines, kitchen hygiene
of food preparation surfaces to the American Public Health (APHA) standards and food
quality to the Australian Food Standards code and the "Guidelines For Ready to Eat
Foods" by the Food Unit, Queensland Department of Health. Methods used for the
different analyses are performed to meet APHA or Australian Standards. The review shows
that there are currently a large number of laboratory services available to infection
control practitioners to specify quality requirements of the hospital environment and
auxiliary services and monitor these requirements by the initiation of a quality
surveillance program.
|
| COOLING TOWER WATER
ANALYSES |
The sources of air borne contamination by Legionella
can be via environmental contamination of air intake ducts or from contaminated potable
water distributed via aerosols produced in equipment such as hospital bathroom shower
heads[2,7]. The contamination of hospital air intake ducts can be due to
aerosol drift from hospital or community cooling towers (from 200 metres to up to a three
kilometre radius[2]). At some hospitals, Legionella pneumophila has been
isolated from cooling towers, and aerosols from these were implicated in transmitting the
bacteria to patients[11,23].
|
Sample Source
A total of 20,149 cooling tower water samples were processed for Legionella
analysis (LA) in the period from 1/4/92 to 31/3/95. The geographical area for these
samples encompassed Northern New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory. The
samples included in the study had either a LA only performed or both a LA and plate count
(PC) performed as specified by the client. Samples were obtained from both hospital and
commercial cooling towers. As samples were generally received coded, evaluation of results
specifically from hospitals could not be performed.
Sample Collection and Transport
Samples were collected into sterile containers, volumes received varied from 50mL
to 250mL. All samples were collected and held prior to transport under the control and
supervision of the client. Clients were advised to refrigerate samples prior to transport
and to transport samples refrigerated if the ambient temperature during the delivery
period was not below 25 O C as specified in Australian Standard AS3896[20].
Sample Processing
Samples were refrigerated on receipt at the laboratory prior to processing.
Samples received before 7.30pm (Monday to Friday) were processed on the same day. Methods of Analysis
- Legionella Analysis
The method used for LA was the Australian Standard method AS3896. The biocide reduction
step used was the centrifugation method rather than the filtration method. Legionellae
isolated were identified as Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1, Legionella
pneumophila serogroup 2 to 14 or Legionella species (not pneumophila). A
negative culture was reported as <10 colony forming units per millilitre (CFU/mL). This
is a National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) accredited method.
- Plate Count Analysis
The method used for PC analysis was the spread plate method of the American Public Health
Association (APHA) standard method 9215 Water and Waste Water[3]. Results were
reported in the range <1,000 to >1,000,000 CFU/mL. This is a NATA accredited method.
- Results of Legionella Analysis
Of the 20,149 samples processed for LA in the review period 2225 (11%) had
detectable levels of legionellae equal to or greater than 10 CFU/ml. The highest isolation
detected during the review period was 270,000 CFU/mL. Using the groupings described by the
NSW Health Department[9], the breakdown of legionellae levels for the positive
samples is shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Legionella concentrations.
| 10 - <100 CFU/mL |
100 - 1,000 CFU/mL |
>1,000 CFU/mL |
| 1012 isolates |
937 isolates |
276 isolates |
| 45.5% |
42.1% |
12.4% |
The NSW Health Department guidelines classify Legionella
levels as follows: 10 to 99 CFU/mL as an indicator that maintenance practices may not be
satisfactory, 100 to 1,000 CFU/mL as potentially hazardous and levels greater than 1,000
CFU/mL as a serious situation requiring immediate shutdown of the system and
decontamination. As shown in Table 1, over half of the positive samples had legionellae
detected at potentially hazardous or serious contamination levels. During the review
period 97.1% of the positive samples had Legionella pneumophila and 2.9% had Legionella
species (not pneumophila), seven samples had detectable levels of both groups
isolated. Pathogenic legionellae have been reported in L. pneumophila serogroup 1, L.
pneumophila serogroups 2 to 14 and Legionella species (not pneumophila)
groups[7,12,17] and therefore the risk assessment at present should solely be
based on the concentration reported and not on the species or serogroup of the isolate
reported.
The monthly isolation rate ranged from 2.4% (October
1993) to 20.4% (January 1995). As shown in Graph 1. the isolation rate for legionellae
peaked in the summer and autumn months.
Graph 1. Legionella isolation rates from April 1992 to March 1995.

Relationship of Legionella Isolation to Plate Count
Level
There is some confusion to the acceptable levels of PC count results of cooling
tower water. The Victorian Health Department guidelines[10] state that levels
in excess of 500,000 CFU/mL are unacceptable, whereas the New South Wales Health
Department and the Australian Standards handbook HB-32[21] both state levels in
access of 100,000 CFU/mL are unacceptable. The Australian Standard AS3666[19]
makes no reference to PC results and at present the Queensland Health Department does not
have guidelines although the department of Workplace Health and Safety is reviewing the
situation. Plate count results give a general guide on the effectiveness of biocide used
and what level is used as a cut off for acceptability needs to be determined in
association with the water treatment or maintenance company responsible for each cooling
tower. The action taken for high plate count levels also needs to be determined. Of the
2,225 samples that had a positive LA, 1,275 had a PC also performed. Table 2 shows the
break down of the PC results.
Table 2. Plate count results of Legionella positive samples.
| <10,000
CFU/mL |
10,000 to
<100,000 CFU/mL |
100,000 to
<1 Million
CFU/mL |
>= 1
Million CFU/mL |
| 405 isolates |
528 isolates |
277 isolates |
65 isolates |
| 32% |
41% |
22% |
5% |
As shown in Table 2, 73% of the cooling tower water samples
that had a PC performed and had detectable levels of legionellae had a PC result below all
acceptable limits. Therefore it can be seen that PC analysis does not bear any
relationship to the risk of colonisation by legionellae in a cooling tower. It should be
noted that Legionella species and other fastidious bacteria will not grow on the
media used for PC analysis and are therefore not detected. An example of this was shown by
one sample that had a Legionella pneumophila level of 16,000 CFU/mL and a PC of
2,000 CFU/mL, this has also been reported by other workers[13]. Where the PC is
high, and other bacteria are not suppressed on culture media the sensitivity of LA may be
reduced and a false negative result may be reported. The reduction in analysis sensitivity
can be caused by bacterial overgrowth or the presence of bacteria that synthesised
bacteriocins or bacteriocin-like substances that can inhibit Legionella species[8].
Because of this and that there has been reported to be an increase in the risk of
Legionnaires' disease where the Legionella/PC ratio is above 10%, there would be an
advantage to have a PC performed in unison with each LA.
Testing Frequency Necessary to Reduce the Risk of High Levels of Contamination
During the review period an average of approximately one in 10 samples had
detectable levels of legionellae. All cooling towers monitored were maintained as required
by AS3666 and, in addition, performed three monthly tower cleans. It could therefore be
extrapolated that maintaining a cooling tower to present regulations will not prevent the
contamination of cooling tower water with legionellae. Further as over half of the
positive samples had the bacteria in levels of either potentially hazardous or serious
concentrations, it could be concluded that these regulations do not prevent high level
contamination from occurring. Since it appears that the contamination of cooling towers
with legionellae is a common occurrence, then steps need to be taken to reduce the risk of
a disease outbreak. This could be achieved by regularly monitoring of legionellae levels
and reducing the chance of contaminated aerosol dispersion. The later can be achieved by
review of the physical characteristics of a cooling tower such as, position in relation to
air intake ducts and exposure to general hospital staff and patients and the proficiency
of drift eliminators used to reduce aerosols from escaping into the atmosphere. The
decision on testing frequency should be based on review of these characteristics. Testing
every three months represents a random check usually performed just prior to the next
scheduled tower clean. If a tower becomes contaminated shortly after the clean then there
will be a period of up to 12 weeks during which the legionellae concentration could reach
high levels. This was shown by one cooling tower which was routinely tested every three
months and the levels increased from <10 CFU/mL (October 1994) to 40,000 CFU/mL
(January 1995) in two consecutive samples.
A survey of one customer (a large property management group
based in Brisbane) who monitor all their cooling towers on a monthly basis (as compared to
every three months for most other customers) showed that during 1994 they had 92% of their
Legionella positive towers at the lowest risk level (10 to less than 100 CFU/mL)
and no isolations in the highest risk category (above 1,000 organisms/ml). This compares
to a company average of positive samples during the same period, of mostly three monthly
tested towers, which had 56% in the lowest risk category and 12% in the highest risk
category. It should also be noted that the overall isolation rate of Legionella
species from water samples from this customer was similar to the company average (12.5%
and 10.6% respectively). That is, the frequency of a positive sample was similar to three
monthly tested cooling towers but the concentration of a positive detection was
significantly lower (p=<0.001 by Chi squared test). The only way to minimise the risk
of a high level of contamination is to do so monthly. At the very least, if three monthly
tests are to be performed then the sample should be taken six weeks after the tower clean
and not at the end of the three monthly period. This will reduce the chances of long
periods of contamination which could go undetected. Realising that contamination of air
intake ducts can occur not only by the cooling towers situated within the hospital complex
but also by adjacent cooling towers off site (200 metres to a three kilometre radius)
further complicates the situation. It would seem that tighter governmental controls in the
form of legislation regarding maintenance and routine testing are necessary to
significantly reduce the risk of a disease outbreak.
|
| SURFACE TESTING FOR
FILTER EFFICIENCY AND DUCT CLEANLINESS |
| There are no Australian Standards for
the evaluation of aerial or surface microbiological counts in relation to quality of
filter efficiency or the cleanliness of airconditioning ducting. A number of companies and
laboratories offer duct testing services. Unless the results of these are referenced to an
acceptable standard and results are in a numeric form with standard units of expression
(CFU/cubic metre of air or CFU/square centimetre of surfaces) the results can be
meaningless. The finding of a wide variety of fungi and bacteria is not uncommon and may
not necessarily represent a health risk. One unpublished guideline[18] has
suggested a combined fungal and bacterial count in excess of 1,000 CFU/m3 in
air and 500 CFU/cm2 on surfaces indicates that an airconditioning system is in
need of cleaning. Possibly the best method
would be to use surface testing as an in-house reference and by testing surfaces every
three to six months a graphical log could be generated of the degree of cleanliness in
hospital areas. Sampling can be easily performed by hospital staff using a 5 cm2
template, sterile swab and a specialised transport broth. The test takes 2 days for the
bacterial count and 5 days for the fungal count. |
| HYDROTHERAPY POOL
WATER TESTING |
The National Health and Medical Research
Council of Australia (NHMRC) has guidelines for heated spa pools[15]. These
guidelines should be attainable routinely for heated hydrotherapy pools. These guidelines
state that the PC should be less than 100 CFU/mL and that the Pseudomonas aeruginosa
count should be less than 1 CFU/100mL. Water samples should be collected monthly until it
is demonstrated that a satisfactory water quality is achieved and then not less than every
three months. A water sample of 150 to 200mL is required in a sterile container and the
analyses take 3 to 7 days.
|
| POTABLE WATER QUALITY |
There are numerous drinking water
outlets situated throughout the hospital area. These will include town water supply (in
some situations stored in large tanks in building roof areas or supplied via chilled water
bubblers) and in some institutions as purchased bottled water chilled and supplied by free
mounted dispensers. All these sources are potentially capable of harbouring high levels of
bacteria. The NHMRC guidelines for drinking water quality[16] state that the PC
should be less than 500 CFU/mL (or less than 100 CFU/mL for disinfected/chlorinated water)
and that the total coliform count (TCC) and the faecal coliform count (FCC) should be less
than 1 CFU/100mL. Some water samples from the above sources have been found to have PC in
excess of 30,000 CFU/mL, TCC in excess of 300 CFU/100mL and FCC in excess of 50 CFU/100mL.
Where unacceptable microbial levels are found disinfection and physical cleaning of the
storage or the delivery system is required. All water dispensers need to have a regular
maintenance schedule. The testing frequency suggested for bottled water dispensers is
every 2 months after initial testing shows acceptable results. For water bubblers testing
every 6 months is recommended and for town water tap supply, every 3 months if it has a
roof storage tank and every 6 months if supply is direct. Approximately 250mL of water is
required in a sterile container to perform the three necessary tests and results would be
available in 2 to 5 days.
Legionellosis as a nosocomial infection has been reported associated with hospital potable
water supplies[2,5,7]. The factors contributing to the contamination of
hospital water distributions include large volume hot water tanks, age of heater and water
temperature at faucet[1]. In a given hospital, Best et al.[4]
reported that legionellosis occurred whenever L. pneumophila was recovered from
>30% of selected sites. Alary et al.[1] reported that large volume hot water
tanks (7,005 " 761 litres), mean water temperature at the faucet after 3 minutes of
51.6 " 1.4oC and age of the oldest water heater (28.2 " 1.8) were
contributing factors to colonisation by legionellae. Possibly larger water distribution
systems are more susceptible to contamination than smaller ones because stagnation is more
likely. The relationship between temperature and Legionella contamination relates
to the requirement of a temperature of 60oC as measured at the faucet as
optimal for growth inhibition[9]. In older heaters the accumulation of
sediments or slime that creates an adequate environment for the growth of legionellae and
other bacteria species that grow in symbiosis with L. pneumophila is more likely[22].
Hospital hot water systems need to be assessed and, in deemed necessary, a suitable
screening program established to monitor for legionellae contamination. Samples need to be
collected in 70mL sterile containers and the analysis takes 5 to 10 days, negative reports
are issued after the required 10 day incubation period[20].
|
| KITCHEN HYGIENE
MONITORING OF FOOD PREPARATIVE SURFACES |
| The kitchen facilities of a hospital must be
maintained at the highest hygiene level possible. This includes the food preparation
surfaces, equipment, utensils and crockery. The American Public Health Association
guidelines[24] state that for adequately cleaned surfaces the PC should be less
than 2 CFU/cm2 and for utensils the PC should be less than 100 CFU/utensil.
There are no guidelines or any real necessity to test for specific pathogens. This
monitoring system provides quantitative data to evaluate the surface disinfection
procedures presently used and can be incorporated into the evaluation of future
disinfectants prior to purchase. Also, by routinely monitoring food preparation surfaces
and utensils infection control practitioners can ascertain whether the bacterial build up
is excessive. Unacceptably high bacterial levels can lead to food spoilage and could
present a health risk to patients. The collection
procedure is the same as described for airconditioning surfaces and can be performed by
hospital staff. The method is specifically designed for flat surfaces, but it can be used
for testing of unmeasured surface areas such as utensils. In this case the entire utensil
surface must be swabbed and care must be taken to prevent contamination by handling during
swabbing. Surfaces are usually tested prior to use after disinfection has been performed.
This commonly is performed at the start of the morning shift. There is no need to test
surfaces while in use as these will routinely have high bacterial loads. The usefulness of
this test is to monitor cleaning and disinfection procedures. The frequency of testing
usually one a month of a number of areas so that every surface/utensil type is monitored
once every 6 to 12 months.
|
| FOOD QUALITY MONITORING |
| Most foods that have not been subjected to a
severe heat treatment will contain large numbers of living organisms. In some cases many
different types will be present. Some are desirable, while others may be classified as
spoilage, indicators of faecal contamination or pathogenic. It is not cost effective to
monitor each batch of food for every possible pathogenic microorganism. The Australian
Food Standards Code[14] is not complete and only covers a small number of
indicator and pathogenic bacteria for the different food groups. The reported Escherichia
coli contamination of manufactured sausage[6] would not have been detected
by adhering to the AFSC as this group of bacteria are not required to be tested under the
manufactured meat microbiological requirements. For this food group only coagulase
positive staphylococci and Salmonella are required to be tested. To formulate a
more complete list of guidelines for prepared food the assistance was sought of the
Queensland Health Departments of the Food Unit and the microbiology laboratory. Table 3
shows the combined suggested guidelines for food analyses using the AFSC and the
"Guidelines for Ready to Eat Foods" from the Food Unit. A sample size of 20 to 100 grams collected into a sterile container
is required to perform the analyses. The reporting time varies from 2 to 5 days depending
on the analysis type. It is impractical due to monetary restraints to perform all the
necessary analyses of each batch of prepared foods. However a testing regime should be
established that will perform each test on each food group once over a period of time.
This time period will vary from one institution to another depending on available funds.
TABLE 3. Food analysis guidelines
FOOD |
Coag Pos Staph/g |
Salmonella/25g |
Plate Count/g |
E.coli/g |
B.cereus/g |
C.perfringens/g |
Listeria spp/25g |
Campylobacter spp/25g |
All cooked meat/poultry
|
* 100 |
NOT DETECTED |
* 10,000,000 |
* 70 |
* 500 |
* 500 |
NOT DETECTED |
NOT DETECTED |
Manufactured meat/poultry Frankfurts,
saveloys, salami etc
|
* 1,000 |
NOT DETECTED |
* 10,000,000 |
* 70 |
* 500 |
* 500 |
NOT DETECTED |
NOT DETECTED |
Meat loaf, meat paste & Pate
|
* 500 |
NOT DETECTED |
* 1,000,000 |
* 70 |
* 500 |
* 500 |
NOT DETECTED |
NOT DETECTED |
Frozen pre-cooked foods (not prawns)
(only requires heating before serving) |
* 100 |
NOT DETECTED |
* 100,000 |
* 70 |
* 500 |
* 500 |
NOT DETECTED |
NOT DETECTED |
Frozen pre-cooked prawns (only requires
heating before serving) |
* 500 |
NOT DETECTED |
* 100,000 |
* 70 |
|
|
|
|
Oysters and shellfish (not purified)
|
* 500 |
NOT DETECTED |
* 100,000 |
* 7 |
|
|
|
|
Cooked prawns
|
* 500 |
NOT DETECTED |
* 1,000,000 |
* 100 |
|
|
|
|
Ready to eat foods (inc. salads) |
* 500 |
NOT DETECTED |
* 10,000,000 |
* 70 |
* 500 |
* 500 |
NOT DETECTED |
|
* = Not Exceeding. Underlined figures adapted
from "Guidelines for Ready to Eat Foods" from the Food Unit, Queensland
Department of Health.
All other figures sourced from the "Australian
Foods Standards Code - 1992".
|
| CHOICE OF TESTING
LABORATORY |
| Private or public hospital laboratories are
NATA registered as medical testing facilities and do not have registration to
enable the issue of NATA endorsed documents for the above mentioned analyses unless they
have additional registration under biological testing. The choice of a laboratory
should be primarily driven on the quality of the testing procedures. By utilising NATA
registered biological testing laboratory there is the safeguard that all tests are
performed with the relevant quality control procedures to Australian or International
standards and that these laboratories are regularly monitored by NATA biological
inspections. |
| CONCLUSIONS |
Historically the role of the infection control
practitioner has been primarily related to medical/surgical procedures and ancillary
services which directly contribute to nosocomial infection. Without the creation of a
specific section to deal with the microbial quality of the total environment including
airconditioning, hydrotherapy pools, drinking water, kitchen preparation areas and food,
quality control may well remain with the infection control department. This would seem
advantageous as contamination of these facilities could develop into a nosocomial
infection on a major scale. The role of the biological testing laboratory has rarely been
regarded as a service provider to the infection control team. But it would now seem
beneficial to include an environmental/food microbiologist as a regular contributor to
infection control meetings. With the introduction of total quality management and quality
systems certification to AS/NZS/ISO 9000: 1994 series there is the opportunity for
infection control practitioners to widen their scope of activities to encompass proactive
monitoring of the less traditional sources of nosocomial infection.
|
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Biotech
Laboratories
NATA accredited commercial public microbiological testing facility.
Chemical analysis analyses samples water, food, soil, air, beverages
meat poultry carcass surfaces shelf life consultants from both food
premises and air-conditioning cooling tower. Greenslopes Private
Hospital, Newdegate Street, Greenslopes, Brisbane, Queensland,
Australia.
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