devices take much less time to disinfect than HPV
systems — approximately 15 to 25 minutes per area.
However, they only kill contaminants within a direct
line of site of the UV light beam, points out Ms.
Perri. "They may be quick, but you have to move the
device two to three times to disinfect a typical OR,"
she adds.
Still, the devices are effective and can be used in
a variety of ways. For instance, St. Charles Health
System in Bend, Ore., acquired three UV-C devices
that have been used to reduce the cases of hospital-
acquired infections from C. diff., disinfect a surgical
instrument sterilization room following a sewage
pipe burst and disinfect emergency room areas dur-
ing a flu outbreak. The facility also employs a UV-C
device to disinfect ORs used for total joint replace-
ments, sterilize a cardiac cath lab and spot clean
other areas of its facilities.
"The greatest benefit of the device is being able
to kill spores in the areas that you can't reach to
clean," says Rochelle "Rockie" Shatka, CHESP,
environmental services manager at St. Charles
Health. After the environmental services staff
completes a thorough manual cleaning of rooms,
they run the UV-C machine — purchased for
around $100,000 — through a cleaning cycle,
which takes 45 minutes to complete, according to
Ms. Shatka.
You may think incorporating whole-room disin-
fection into a well-established workflow process
would take some getting used to, but Ms. Shatka
says the process was pretty seamless. "We just
incorporated it as part of our standard cleaning
process," says Ms. Shatka.
• Hydrogen peroxide vapor. These systems pro-
duce airborne hydrogen peroxide in the form of a
vapor or mist, which covers every surface of the
enclosed space in which they are located and are
used for terminal cleanings of ORs. They take
longer to run than UV-C systems — in some cases
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