Bed bugs: Infesting a facility near you?

A new white paper is warning long-term care facilities about an unwelcome pest, and it has nothing to do with QIS surveyors.

Recently released from Orkin, Inc., and the American Society for Healthcare Environmental Services (ASHES), the white paper covers some trends about the proliferation of bed bugs in healthcare facilities that are sure to make any administrator uneasy.

This excerpt, for example, is somewhat troubling:

“Orkin, Inc., recently surveyed its branch locations and found that in 2008 bed bug activity remained consistent or increased over previous years, according to respondents. For those that reported an increase, prevalence of the pests grew by an average of 50% to 75% from the previous year, with some branches reporting a 100% to 200% year-over-year increase in the number of calls to service bed bug infestations … Taken together, Orkin branch locations reported more than 500 treatments in hospitals and healthcare facilities and more than 130 treatments in long-term care facilities related to bed bug infestations. As one respondent noted, ‘Bed bugs are making a major comeback.’”

OK, so 130 treatments in long-term care facilities may not seem like a trend of plague-like proportions. However, so long as the environments in facilities offer a sustainable habitat for the proliferation of this pest, bed bug infestations should be of concern to administrators.

Be sure to read the white paper for:

· Preventative measures

· Monitoring and detection

· Treatment

Click here for the PDF.