This article reports on one acute trust’s attempt to stop the spread of healthcare-associated infections — particularly Clostridium difficile — among patients using pressure-relieving mattresses. After an audit exposed the fact that mattresses displayed visible contamination and staff were unclear about the trust’s decontamination policy, a five-step system was instigated to ensure that devices that had been contaminated with alert organisms were effectively processed and decontaminated. Alongside this initiative, clearer cleaning instructions were devised and distributed.