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M O N T H 2 0 1 4 | S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
MDROs, as well as patients with contaminated
wound classes, since environmental contamination
with pathogenic bacteria would be expected in
these cases.
Finishing touch
UV systems are engineered to disinfect line-of-sight
surfaces from one or more positions within a room,
overcoming human error such as missed and diffi-
cult-to-reach surfaces, and improper chemical appli-
cation. Our current policy is to change privacy cur-
tains after we discharge a patient who'd been on
contact precautions. This is a time-consuming
process in which an environmental service worker
has to climb a ladder, unhook the old curtain and
reattach a new one. We're exploring whether UV
treatment can disinfect curtains so that we could
maintain those that aren't visibly soiled.
Should you deploy UV systems to prevent dan-
gerous health care-associated infections or to halt
outbreaks? When it comes to infection prevention,
it's obviously better to be proactive than reactive,
but it's probably most practical for OR managers to
add automated no-touch disinfection technology to
your comprehensive manual cleaning routines
already in place. So think of UV not as a replace-
ment for mops and pre-moistened wipes, but as a
powerful finishing touch that can kill germs on sur-
faces that, for whatever reason, your clinical clean-
ing team or environmental services staff passed
O R H Y G I E N E
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