AAMI TIR12 discusses "Noncritical environmental surfaces", which is what I expect a patient monitor would be considered. These are surfaces that usually do not come in contact with patients or, if they do, only with intact skin. Environmental surfaces carry the least risk of infection transmission, but can contribute to secondary cross-contamination by the hands of health care workers or by contact with medical instruments that will subsequently come into contact with patients. There are two subdivisions:
- Medical equipment surfaces
- Housekeeping surfaces (floors, walls, table tops, window sills, etc)
See attached USA CDC guideline for related information. Low-level disinfection is recommended.
Page 11 says this:
Noncritical items are those that come in contact with intact skin but not mucous membranes. Intact skin acts as an effective barrier to most microorganisms; therefore, the sterility of items coming in contact with intact skin is "not critical." In this guideline, noncritical items are divided into noncritical patient care items and noncritical environmental surfaces. Examples of noncritical patient-care items are bedpans, blood pressure cuffs, crutches and computers. In contrast to critical and some semicritical items, most noncritical reusable items may be decontaminated where they are used and do not need to be transported to a central processing area. Virtually no risk has been documented for transmission of infectious agents to patients through noncritical items 37 when they are used as noncritical items and do not contact non-intact skin and/or mucous membranes. Table 1 lists several low-level disinfectants that may be used for noncritical items.