2 6 S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E M A Y 2 0 1 5
e. both A and B are correct
Answer: e
Ultraviolet light sanitation systems should be a complement to manual cleaning
— not a replacement. After your staff cleans the room, the disinfection system
is brought in and completes multiple cycles for disinfection. Typically this can
take between 20 and 30 minutes.
Because of the amount of time it takes, most experts recommend it only be
used for terminal cleaning or after cases involving patients with an infectious
disease. The guidelines for the technology are still developing, but with a 99.9%
effective kill rate against the majority of organisms, more and more facilities are
considering the machines.
OSM
Ms. Nucci (dnucciconsulting@yahoo.com) is an infection preventionist at the Yale-New Haven
Hospital in New Haven, Conn., and also works as an independent infection prevention consultant.
