The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
CHH deploys germ-killing robot to fight infections
TORRINGTON — Charlotte Hungerford Hospital (CHH) recently added Tru-D SmartUVC, a germeliminating ultra-violet (UV) disinfection robot, to its already stringent list of disinfection routines aimed at protecting patients from serious hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).
The device is currently being utilized for all isolation rooms upon discharge/ transfer, and circulates throughout the hospital to the operating suites, Emergency Department and patient care areas in the main hospital. It was made possible by a grant from The Draper Foundation Fund, a fund of the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation.
UV technology is one way CHH is raising the bar when it comes to the level of care it provides to all patients. In the U.S., one in 25 patients acquire an HAI while being treated. The staggering cost of an HAI to both the patient and hospital also motivated leadership to protect patients’ pocketbooks and the hospital’s bottom line by implementing UV technology in disinfection protocols. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently conducted a multi-site randomized clinical trial, which concluded that a combination of manual cleaning and measured-dose UV light results in a 30-plus percent reduction of infections for patients who stay in rooms previously occupied by infected patients.
“The acquisition of UV technology is simply another way that we’re working to safeguard the well-being of every single patient who walks through our doors and protect the integrity of our health care environment,” said Paul Gentile, Infection Control and Prevention Coordinator at CHH. UV Technology has been found to be effective in decreasing the incidence of HAI’s in many hospitals, which could reduce disease mortality and morbidity in hospitalized patients.
Tru-D, which works by generating UV light energy that modifies the DNA or RNA structure of an infectious cell, is the only
portable UV disinfection system on the market with Sensor360 technology. After manual cleaning has been completed by environmental services, the UV device is placed into the patient’s exam room. The device’s patented technology calculates the amount of UVC energy needed to disinfect an entire room while compensating for room variables such as size, shape, surface reflectivity and contents to then deliver a lethal dose from a single location, effectively eliminating lingering pathogens in the space.
This innovative technology, coupled with TruD’s high-efficiency germicidal lamps, kills deadly germs such as Ebola, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Clostridium difficile (C. diff ), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Norovirus and Enterovirus D68.
The robot is operated by a remote control outside the room and features an application that tracks infection control data while simultaneously uploading the information to the hospital’s web portal. The robot can disinfect an entire room from one location, eliminating the need to move it to multiple places in the room. Once disinfection is complete, Tru-D notifies the environmental services department via audio and/ or text message that the process has finished.