Quantitative assessment of interactions between hospitalized patients and portable medical equipment and other fomites

•Environmental cleaning in hospitals focuses primarily on high-touch surfaces in patient rooms. •Shared portable equipment can also be a source of pathogen transmission. •We demonstrated that hospitalized patients frequently interact with shared equipment, and these items were often contaminated. •There is a need for protocols to ensure routine cleaning of shared equipment. In an observational study, we demonstrated that hospitalized patients...