Lowell (Mass.) GeneralHospital employed robots that disinfect operating rooms and noted a 46 percent decrease in rates of surgical site infections, according to the research. They used Xenex Disinfection Services’ Germ-Zapping Robots model. The robots use ultraviolet light disinfection to eliminate pathogenic bacteria that could result in infection in hospital environments.
“This is the seventh facility to report, in a peer-reviewed study, a dramatic decrease in its infection rates after using our pulsed xenon UV disinfection system to destroy pathogens that can pose a risk to patients,” said Mark Stibich, MD, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Xenex. “Our robots work quickly and efficiently, which enables hospital EVS to run them consistently — and enhance patient safety by destroying the microorganisms that could cause infections.”
The study looked at data across 13 operating rooms from April 2013 to December 2014. After a standard chemical-based cleaning was administered, the researchers simultaneously ran two of the robots in the rooms, resulting in the decline in infection rates, according to the paper.
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