Using UV Light in Medical Facilities

What is UVC Disinfection?

According to the FDA, UVC radiation is a known disinfectant for air and non porous surfaces. UVC radiation has effectively been used for decades to reduce the spread of bacteria and harmful pathogens. UVC dosing works to reach all areas within a treated room, including those in shadowed or hard-to-reach places. By penetrating areas that manual cleaning and other technology cannot, UVC ensures disinfection is as complete as possible. A UV disinfection system administers ultraviolet light to reduce the amount of harmful pathogens in an operating room, emergency room, patient room or other area of possible contamination. When bundled with manual cleaning and disinfection protocols, the technology can significantly reduce patient exposure to HAIs.

The Importance of Using UVC Disinfection in Medical Facilities

Patients rely on hospitals to help them heal, but the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) is a significant impediment to that. According to the CDC, one in 31 hospital patients will battle an HAI—that’s approximately 1.7 million patients infected every year in the U.S. It’s critical that hospitals prevent infectious diseases from spreading from surface to surface, room to room, floor to floor, and between departments. Pathogen transmission — resulting in healthcare-associated infections — costs hospitals billions of dollars annually. This means that every surface must be cleaned and disinfected. With manual cleaning methods, some spots get missed. This could be because areas are hard to reach or that medical equipment and patient beds can cast shadows. Not all rooms are the same shape and size. This is why it’s important to use a UVC disinfection system, to help disinfect the spots that often get missed when using manual cleaning methods.

How to Choose the Best UVC System

In order to help bring HAI rates down, it’s important for healthcare facilities to ensure their disinfection procedures are actually working. In today’s healthcare environment – including hyper awareness of virus transmission risk – hospitals need to choose technologies that can be measured and are able to provide the data needed to show proof of UVC dosing and compliance. The best UVC disinfection equipment is designed to operate as efficiently as possible to reduce treatment time and return treatment areas to service quickly. A “pause and reposition” feature helps operators streamline use of the technology. The technology helps staff quickly disinfect crucial areas and return rooms to service. Additionally, measuring the delivered UVC does, tracking treatment data, monitoring effectiveness, and sharing with necessary stakeholders is an important function of UVC light technology.