Quick answer: Curtains in nursing homes carry multidrug-resistant organisms, cleaning them reduces that contamination, and the reduction fades within days — so cleaning has to be a schedule, not a one-off event. This page sets out the primary sources for those claims, what each one does and does not prove, and links to the original document so you can verify it yourself.
Every source on this page was checked against the original document, not a summary or a secondary write-up. Where a claim can’t be sourced this way, we say so rather than invent a citation. This page exists so a Director of Nursing, an IPC lead, or a journalist can verify every figure we use without having to take our word for it.
1. Curtains in nursing homes carry multidrug-resistant organisms
Gibson K, Mills JP, Mantey J, Lansing B, Cassone M, Mody L. “MDRO Contamination of Privacy Curtains in Nursing Homes.” Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 2021;43(5):666–668. DOI 10.1017/ice.2021.60
A prospective study across six nursing homes sampled 1,521 privacy curtains from 625 patients. 22% of samples were positive for multidrug-resistant organisms — 13.8% VRE, 6.2% resistant gram-negative bacilli, 4.9% MRSA. 40% of residents had a contaminated privacy curtain at some point during the study. Genetic matching showed the organism on the curtain was the resident’s own strain in 78.9% of MRSA pairs.
What this proves: that privacy curtain contamination in long-term care specifically — not just acute hospitals — is common, and is frequently the resident’s own organism rather than something introduced from outside.
What this doesn’t prove: a specific cleaning frequency, or that any particular cleaning method reduces this contamination. It is a contamination-prevalence study, not an intervention study.
2. Freshly cleaned curtains don’t stay clean for long
Shek K, Patidar R, Kohja Z, et al. “Rate of contamination of hospital privacy curtains in a burns/plastic ward: A longitudinal study.” American Journal of Infection Control, 2018;46(9). PMID 29655669
Ten freshly laundered curtains were tracked over 21 days. By day 14, 87.5% tested positive for MRSA, with contamination rising sharply between days 10 and 14.
What this proves: that a curtain cleaned once does not stay clean — recontamination is fast, measured in days, not months. Cleaning has to be a recurring programme, not a single event.
What this doesn’t prove: the exact recontamination curve for a nursing home environment specifically — this study was conducted on a hospital burns/plastics ward, a higher-acuity setting than most long-term care. It also doesn’t establish an optimal cleaning interval on its own.
3. Cleaning curtains in place works — and the benefit fades
Cadogan K, Bashar S, Magnusson S, et al. “Assessment of cleaning methods on bacterial burden of hospital privacy curtains: a pilot randomized controlled trial.” Scientific Reports, 2021;11:21866. DOI 10.1038/s41598-021-01198-2
A randomised controlled trial — the strongest evidence class of the three studies here — found that cleaning curtains in place, without removing them, cut MRSA contamination from 64% (control) to 5–10%. The paper notes that “the bacterial burden reduced to near day-0 levels; however, the level increased again over the intervening 3–4 days” between cleans.
What this proves: that cleaning curtains without taking them down is an effective way to reduce bacterial contamination, and that the benefit decays over the following days — supporting the case for a recurring schedule over a one-off deep clean.
What this doesn’t prove — honesty caveat: this trial used a hydrogen-peroxide spray-and-wipe method, not Curtain Care Ireland’s Deep Heat process. It is evidence for the general principle that in-place cleaning reduces bioburden. It is not evidence for our specific method, and we do not present it as such.
4. HIQA’s own published inspection reports
HIQA (the Health Information and Quality Authority) publishes every nursing home inspection report on hiqa.ie. Curtain cleaning schedules appear repeatedly in these reports as a compliance matter — both as findings and as the compliance plan response to a finding. We anonymise the centre in every case below: our purpose is to show that HIQA inspectors do look at curtains, not to single out any individual home.
- An unannounced inspection recorded that “curtains were heavily stained” alongside other cleanliness findings, under Regulation 27 (Infection control). The provider’s compliance plan response was that “an enhanced cleaning schedule, including the cleaning of curtains…was introduced.”
- A separate unannounced inspection recorded that “curtains in a shared room were visibly dirty,” also under Regulation 27. The provider’s response: “a formal curtain cleaning schedule is in place, and curtains identified as unclean have been removed, cleaned or replaced as required.”
- A third inspection, under Regulation 9 (Residents’ rights) rather than Regulation 27, found that two twin bedrooms did not have appropriate privacy curtains in place — the cause was curtains sent for washing without a spare set hung. This is a distinct finding from hygiene: an absence of privacy is a rights issue in its own right.
What this proves: that curtain hygiene and curtain availability are things HIQA inspectors actually record, under two different regulations, and that the accepted remedy in every case is a documented cleaning schedule — never a specific numerical interval.
What this doesn’t prove: how common these findings are as a proportion of all inspections — we have not run a systematic search of the full HIQA report archive. Treat these as evidence that curtains are on the inspection checklist, not as a frequency statistic. Our HIQA inspection-report analysis covers a wider search of the public record.
What we don’t claim
Two things worth being explicit about, because overclaiming here would undermine everything above:
- None of the studies above tested our Deep Heat method specifically. They support the general principles behind what we do — in-situ cleaning reduces contamination, and the effect fades over days — but they are not evidence for our process by name. An independent, accredited lab test of our own method, on our own equipment, is the piece of evidence we don’t yet have. If and when that test happens, this page will be updated with the result either way.
- HPSC (the Health Protection Surveillance Centre) does not publish a curtain cleaning interval. Its published guidance addresses curtains in the context of outbreaks and terminal cleaning — for example, laundering at a minimum of 50°C for items used by a resident with a confirmed infection — not a routine calendar frequency. Where you see a specific interval on this site, it is sourced to National Clinical Guideline No. 30 (Department of Health, 2023) or stated as our own recommendation, never to HPSC.
The regulatory sources
- Regulation 27 (Infection control), Health Act 2007 (Care and Welfare of Residents in Designated Centres for Older People) Regulations 2013 — S.I. No. 415/2013. One sentence, and it does not mention curtains, soft furnishings or a frequency by name.
- National Clinical Guideline No. 30 (Department of Health / National Clinical Effectiveness Committee, May 2023), Volume 2, §7.1, Tables 39–40 — Volume 2 (PDF). The current national benchmark for a routine interval: long-term care sits in the low-risk band, with bed curtains changed or cleaned twice yearly as a minimum, plus on discharge of any resident with an MDRO or other infectious disease.
- HSE National Cleaning Standards Manual — Appendices (September 2006), Appendix 5, Element 40 — archived copy. The source of the “every three months” figure you may see quoted elsewhere — it applies only to bed curtains in “Very High Risk” areas of acute hospitals, and has been superseded for frequency purposes by NCG 30.