The Importance of Infection Prevention & Control (IPC)
According to the World Health Organization, IPC is an evidence-based approach that prevents healthcare workers and patients from being harmed by avoidable infections. It is critical for healthcare facilities to have an infection prevention program and team. According to the National Library of Medicine, the primary role of an infection prevention program is to reduce the risk of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), in order to protect everyone that enters the facility.
Key IPC Roles
There are many roles involved in IPC, such as surveillance, isolation of patients with transmissible pathogens, outbreak investigation and management, the development of infection prevention policies, regulatory compliance, cleaning, and disinfection.
How UVC Can Help
It is not enough to just keep track of HAIs and cleaning protocols. Every surface of every room needs to be disinfected, and UVC technology is a proven solution. According to the FDA, UVC radiation is a known disinfectant for air and nonporous surfaces. UVC technology deploys UV light to penetrate the cell walls of spores, bacteria and viruses and renders these harmful pathogens unable to reproduce and spread after treatment with UVC energy. UVC radiation has effectively been used for decades to reduce the spread of bacteria and harmful pathogens. When bundled with manual cleaning and disinfection protocols, the technology significantly reduces patient exposure to HAIs.
UVC radiation can only inactivate a virus if the virus is directly exposed to the radiation. If a surface is under a shadow, it won’t be disinfected. Some UVC systems don’t administer the proper dose and miss areas with dangerous pathogens. The right UVC system should measure the delivered UVC dose and have a “pause and reposition” feature that helps operators ensure targeted areas of the room have received optimal dosage to kill harmful pathogens. Using patented remote UVC sensors and pausing and repositioning the UVC system, helps address variables such as room shape and other obstacles that might prevent areas from being disinfected. The best UVC solutions work to reach all areas within a treated room, including those in shadowed or hard-to-reach places.
Contact us to learn more about UVC disinfection.
