and planning to work their magic. We talked to several healthcare
pros about the strategies they use to get the biggest bang they can
for the significant number of bucks they've invested in whole-room
disinfection systems.
1. Identify the biggest risks. Ms. Burger says it starts with risk
stratification. "We asked ourselves where our greatest challenges
were," she says. "Everybody will tell you it's Clostridium difficile. So
our machines are deployed first and foremost whenever a patient has
been identified with C. diff. As soon as they're discharged, we termi-
nally clean, then we use the machine."
Fighting back against notoriously stubborn C. diff spores is also the
No. 1 priority at the University of Vermont Medical Center, says
Manager of Infection Prevention Carolyn Terhune, MT (ASCP), CIC.
"Our primary use is in our isolation rooms and we prioritize those
rooms based on risk," says Ms. Terhune. "C. diff is the first priority. If
we can get to other contact isolation rooms, we get to those as well."
At the Elmhurst (Ill.) Hospital, robots follow the trails of patients
who've been infected with any of the common drug-resistant organ-
isms, says Infection Control Manager Annemarie Schmocker, BSN,
RN, CIC, whether that trail leads to the OR, the cath lab or some other
procedure room. "We try to schedule those cases at the end of the
day, because then we take the room down," says Ms. Schmocker. "It
takes a lot of coordination."
2. Make ORs and procedure rooms a
priority.
Of course, the more ORs there are in a given facility, the
more planning goes into making sure they all get frequent doses of
germ-killing UV light or hydrogen peroxide.
At Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Calif., 2 robots carry the load
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