A P R I L 2 0 1 5 O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y . N E T 5 5
his room clean before every total joint case he per-
forms (see "UV Robot Key to Surgery Center Doing
Total Joints" on page 38). And at least once a week
after hours, they station a robot in just about every
room in the surgery center: the equipment room,
the substerile room, the garbage room, the fluid
suction device docking room, even the restrooms,
the waiting room and the staff lounge, says Julie
Tonsager, RN, St. Cloud's operating room team
leader.
"Patient safety is our top priority," says Ms.
Tonsager. "We clean the rooms with traditional
cleaning methods, but there are always nooks and
crannies that are hard to reach. And the germs are
getting tougher, so it was important for us to take
the battle against infections to the next level, to
ensure our patients receive the best care."
Studies show that hospital
cleaning teams using
standard cleaning
practices aren't able to
disinfect all the surfaces
in patient rooms,
with more than
half of the
surfaces remaining
untouched.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN
