Report exposes widespread hygiene issues in Swiss hospitals

More and more hospitals are outsourcing product cleaning to private companies. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

According to Swiss medicines regulator Swissmedic, Swiss hospitals have shortcomings in disinfecting, sterilising, packaging, and storing medical products.

The industry is asking for understanding while promising improvements.

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Hospitals are often thought to be particularly clean, given the importance of hygiene in such environments – germs and bacteria can quickly pose a threat to patients. However, a recent report from Swissmedic reveals that nearly all of the 25 Swiss hospitals inspected had issues with medical products, particularly in the areas of disinfecting, sterilising, packaging, and storage.

Swiss hospital staff need hygiene training

Compared to the previous inspection in 2021/2022, some key areas have actually worsened. In 2023, 91% of facility and cleaning/disinfection inspections found deficiencies, while 82% of inspections related to the packaging and storage of medical products identified problems. “We often found that staff lacked sufficient qualifications. It’s important to provide staff with relevant further training, allowing them the opportunity to improve,” explains Karoline Mathys, who oversees medical product monitoring at Swissmedic. The Swiss medicines regulator offers guidelines developed in collaboration with experts.

Kristian Schneider, director of the hospital in Biel and vice-president of the hospital association H+, is calling for understanding in light of Swissmedic’s poor assessment of Swiss hospitals: “If you observe this in practice, you might sometimes think: ‘That wasn’t quite by the book.’ But that doesn’t mean the product hasn’t been properly prepared.” Switzerland is one of the leading countries when it comes to hygiene standards and their implementation.

More and more hospitals are outsourcing product cleaning to private companies. Sermax, for example, prepares medical products on behalf of health institutions. According to Connie Ingold, deputy head of operations, demand is high: “Many hospitals are struggling with staff shortages and cost pressures.”

Meanwhile, the hospital association is working to further improve quality in hospitals and signed a quality contract with health insurers in May. This is expected to lead to improvements in the processing of medical products as well.

However, Swissmedic finds the implementation lacking, which it considers problematic. Mathys emphasises: “The deficiencies can affect both product safety and patient safety.”

Swiss hospitals outsource processing of medical products

Industry representative Schneider welcomes the latest Swissmedic report, saying: “It helps us improve.” However, he also stresses that patient safety is not at risk. “We maintain high standards of cleanliness, we’re not unhygienic. We don’t endanger patients. We do excellent work.”

Nevertheless, the hospitals involved must take action to meet Swissmedic’s requirements. The Biel hospital, for example, was previously reprimanded in an inspection and has since been working on improvements under Swissmedic’s supervision. According to Mathys, such a process can take up to a year or more.

Translated from German by DeepL/sp

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