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Xenex Healthcare Services portable room disinfection device is demonstrated at MountainView Hospital’s physical rehabilitation unit on Wednesday, June 20, 2012. MountainView is the first hospital in Nevada to employ the device, which uses blue ultraviolet light to disinfect rooms.
Thursday, June 21, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Hospital Disinfection Machine
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Xenex Healthcare Services' portable room disinfection device is demonstrated at MountainView Hospital's physical rehabilitation unit on Wednesday, June 20, 2012. MountainView is the first hospital in Nevada to employ the device, which uses blue ultraviolet light to disinfect rooms.
The campaign to eliminate lethal, hospital-acquired infections is moving from buckets of bleach to a 4-foot-tall robot with a telescoping, disk-shaped head that emits bursts of ultra-violet light.
The device can be moved from one hospital room to another, where for five minutes or more it flashes 90 bursts of UV light per minute, destroying bacteria and viruses.
Its primary target: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or Clostridium difficile (C. diff), two of the most deadly and resistant bacteria that have a propensity to thrive in hospital environments.
In its series, “Do No Harm: Hospital Care in Las Vegas,” the Sun found that in 2008 and 2009, patients became infected with lethal drug-resistant “superbugs” in valley hospitals 2,010 times.
Two hundred thirty-nine patients died — although it’s impossible to tell from hospital billing records how or whether the infections factored in the patients’ deaths.
“There are germs that we can easily clean up, and then there are germs that are harder to get,” said Jan Olivas, the director of risk management and patient safety officer at MountainView Hospital, which is the first and only hospital in Nevada to acquire the device. “With this, we can blast the germs that are truly difficult to get rid of.”
The germ-zapping machine, about the size of a dorm refrigerator, is called the Xenex Healthcare Services Room Disinfection Device. The people who use it call her Rosie, for the robotic housekeeper made popular by the futuristic “Jetsons” cartoon.
Olivas said MountainView has a good record of fighting hospital-acquired infections and is adopting this new technology because “it’s the right thing to do. We like to be ahead of the curve.”
Traditionally, it is the duty of the housekeeping staff to keep hospitals as infection-free as possible. Staff members like Jesrell Munoz, who has worked for the housekeeping department for a year and a half, used to work with chemicals like bleach to attempt to disinfect hospital rooms.
But as strong and abrasive as bleach may be, it typically did little against super-bugs like C. diff.
“C. diff is a spore and has a very tough shell. It’s like a hard, waxy armor,” said Rachel Sparks, the technical director for Xenex. “The UV light is able to puncture the spore’s shell and disrupt the cell’s replication process, deactivating the germ.”
While the science behind the device is complex, the process to use the machine is surprisingly simple. Hospital housekeeping staff must undergo a 20-minute training meeting before they can add this disinfecting step to their daily routine.
“After our regular cleaning, we prepare the room [for the disinfection process],” said Munoz, who is trained to use the disinfecting machine. “We pull things out like drawers and cords, so the machine can catch all different spots in the room.”
The particular area Rosie is placed within a hospital room is decided based off a series of UV mapping done by the Xenex team. Rosie targets high-touch surfaces like IV poles, hand rails, even remote controls. Because C. diff is transmitted through contact, places that are frequently touched have a greater risk of carrying and spreading the bacteria.
“The protocol for deciding how long the machine is used in each room depends on the size of the room,” Hart said.
While people are not supposed to be in the room while Rosie is at work, “if a person were to stand in the room and look directly at the light for a long period of time, the worst that would happen is irritation to their eyes,” Sparks said.
About two dozen hospitals across the country have started using the technology.
There would be no better cure for MRSA than hospitals being required to publicly disclose infection rates. However our weak spined politicians are afraid to do what many others Have Done. Heaven forbid they upset or second rate For Profit Wall Street Health Care "System". Require Disclosure NOW!
If Rose actually works...she could be huge! Next, cruise ships...I want some stock please!
This is fabulous news for public health and safety! As I understand it, some of the casino/resort properties are also having their housekeeping staff using similar technology with success. I would LOVE to see SCHOOLS also use such technology as an integral part of the routine cleaning! Imagine attendance increasing and students doing much better because they are NOT missing those precious instructional minutes of learning! It would be money well spent!
May using sanitation devices as the Xenex Healthcare Services' portable room disinfection device and similar technologies be embraced and encouraged by all, including our lawmakers when crafting laws that affect our daily lives.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
Maybe they could send it over to IP or to clean the sidewalks on the Vegas Strip.
Great idea! Until the hospital staff get lazy about prepping the room, let alone maintaining the machine. I'm just saying that even in the demo photograph used in the article there are closed drawers, cabinets, and covered cords, so I don't exactly have high hopes here.