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 J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7
environmental services for Olean General Hospital, says each unit cost approxi-
mately $40,000, nearly all of which was paid for through creative fundraising
efforts. Since Olean General Hospital adopted the disinfection robots last
December, C. diff incidents have dropped by 17%. Mr. Moore considers these
results "phenomenal," and he expects even more significant reductions in infec-
tion rates between year 2 and year 3. He also believes the investment will reap
intangible benefits in the form of goodwill, by showing the community the hospi-
tal is taking an "extra step" to protect patients.
• Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pa., and Guthrie Corning Hospital
in Corning, N.Y., invested in 4 disinfecting robots capable of sanitizing an entire
operating room in 15 minutes. The hospitals spent $345,000 on the robots, says
Barbara Pennypacker, RN, vice president of surgical services. That price might
be considered a bargain given the fact that just 1 surgical site infection could
cost tens of thousands of dollars to treat.
• Broward (Fla.) Health Imperial Point, which is
part of a 4-hospital system serving the Ft. Lauderdale
area, has been seeing "some good results in its ORs"
since investing in a whole-room disinfection system,
says W. Thomas Kester, RN, MSN, CNOR, the health
system's chief nursing officer and COO. "We haven't
had an SSI in abdominal hysterectomy in a year, and
we haven't had an SSI in colon surgery since June."
Strong vendor relationships helped the company
negotiate a discount on the system's price tag of
approximately $125,000, says Mr. Kester. He also
relied on the vendor to provide usage data that he
could use to state his case to the hospital's C-suite.
"Have your data ready — that's the biggest thing,"
he says. "If you experience problems with HAIs, you
need to outline how [whole-room disinfection] can
• WIDESPREAD COVERAGE Whole-room
disinfection could one day become the
standard of care.
Olean
General
Hospital
