Contamination during doffing of personal protective equipment by healthcare providers

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to describe the processes of both the donning and the doffing of personal protective equipment for Ebola and evaluate contamination during the doffing process. METHODS: We recruited study participants among physicians and nurses of the emergency department of Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, Korea. Participants were asked to carry out doffing and donning procedures with a helper after a 50-minute brief training and demonstration based on the 2014 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protocol. Two separate cameras with high-density capability were set up, and the donning and doffing processes were video-taped. A trained examiner inspected all video recordings and coded for intervals, errors, and contaminations defined as the outside of the equipment touching the clinician’s body surface. RESULTS: Overall, 29 participants were enrolled. Twenty (68.9%) were female, and the mean age was 29.2 years. For the donning process, the average interval until the end was 234.2 seconds (standard deviation [SD], 65.7), and the most frequent errors occurred when putting on the outer gloves (27.5%), respirator (20.6%), and hood (20.6%). For the doffing process, the average interval until the end was 183.7 seconds (SD, 38.4), and the most frequent errors occurred during disinfecting the feet (37.9%), discarding the scrubs (17.2%), and putting on gloves (13.7%), respectively. During the doffing process, 65 incidences of contamination occurred (2.2 incidents/person). The most vulnerable processes were removing respirators (79.2%), removing the shoe covers (65.5%), and removal of the hood (41.3%). CONCLUSION: A significant number of contaminations occur during the doffing process of personal protective equipment.