In a recent press release, a new study proved that enhanced terminal room disinfection with Tru-D SmartUVC leads to a decrease in risk of acquisition of targeted multidrug-resistant organisms such as C. diff and VRE for all patients, hospital-wide.
The study, Effectiveness of targeted enhanced terminal room disinfection on hospital-wide acquisition and infection with multidrug-resistant organisms and Clostridium difficile: a secondary analysis of a multicentre cluster randomized controlled trial with crossover design (BETR Disinfection), which was recently published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, discusses the prescribed secondary analysis of the BETR-D randomized clinical trial.
The study authors sought to prove that a measured dose of continuous UV disinfection in targeted, at-risk rooms would have both direct effects on the next patient who entered the room and an indirect effect on all hospitalized patients, leading to a hospital-wide decreased risk of target organisms. Following the two-year, $2M, CDC-funded trial, the researchers concluded that, “Enhanced terminal room disinfection with UV in a targeted subset of high-risk rooms led to a decrease in hospital-wide incidence of C. difficile and VRE.”
“This secondary analysis of the BETR-D study proves that with an enhanced terminal room UV disinfection program in place, the entire hospital environment is safer,” said Alice Brewer, MPH, CIC, Director of Clinical Affairs for Tru-D SmartUVC. “Regardless of whether the room was previously occupied with a patient who had an MDRO (multidrug-resistant organism), or whether or not they had been previously colonized, if you add a structured, targeted UV disinfection program to your cleaning protocols, your hospital will have fewer cases of C. diff and VRE.”
Tru-D was the only device chosen for the BETR-D study due to its unique ability to establish a baseline of disinfection and eliminate human error in the disinfection process. The BETR-D study is the first and only randomized clinical trial on UV disinfection that was conducted across multiple facilities with appropriate controls and compliance with hand hygiene and manual cleaning. Conducted from 2012-2014 throughout the Duke Infection Control Outreach Network, the study is the first multicenter, randomized controlled trial to show a decrease in hospital-wide incidence after implementation of enhanced terminal disinfection using UV. Due to the strict study protocols and high compliance with cleaning and hand hygiene, the study authors concluded that, “The effects observed in our study might represent the minimum decrease achievable from enhanced disinfection strategies.”