Apr 26 2019
California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) hospitals are using Xenex’s germ-zapping robot, known as LightStrike, to control the spread of infectious diseases.
The innovative mobile robotic device is utilized in operating rooms, medical surgery units, intensive care units, and also in rooms where patients suffering from Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Clostridioides difficile (also called C.diff), and other similar microbes, were discharged.
Part of Sutter Health’s integrated network of care in Northern California, CPMC currently uses this novel mobile robotic technology at all campus sites. In total, seven robots are being operated.
Every second, dozens of bright pulses of (UV) light are emitted by the LightStrike robot. These light pulses bounce into ceilings, floors, walls, and even hard-to-clean places that could be missed by manual cleaning. The bright UV light is absorbed by and fuses the pathogens’ DNA and, as a result, the cell breaks down, dissolves, and finally deactivates the microorganisms. With the help of this system, the room of a patient can be disinfected within a span of 15 minutes.
However, the LightStrike robot is not a substitute for manual cleaning and disinfection by staff. The device is simply another tool that is utilized in the hospitals to improve the efforts of the staffs to fight infectious diseases and also to create a cleaner and safer environment for both patients and their families.
According to internal data, infectious diseases at CPMC have reduced owing to an overarching effort related to better hand hygiene, training, and conscientiousness in disinfecting the rooms of the patients following their discharge—which involves the use of the novel Xenex technology.
CPMC’s sister hospitals in the Valley—Sacramento, Sutter Medical Center, and Sutter Roseville Medical Center—are also utilizing the innovative Xenex Germ-Zapping Robots to help in their attempts to disinfect rooms. In addition, they have observed analogous declines in rates of infectious diseases.