UV bacteria-killing robot cleans hospital rooms far better than humans
Hospital-acquired infections are needlessly running rampant; perhaps modern cleaning techniques are not powerful enough. But there is hope – UV bacteria-killing robots.
- Healthcare facilities are havens for recovery and rehabilitation.
- But the healing process would be impossible without the stringent sanitization practices and procedures medical professionals use to prevent healthcare facilities from becoming reservoirs of unwanted or potentially harmful bacteria and other microorganisms.
- And, as it turns out, ultraviolet light (UV) is a potent weapon in this war.
Maintaining a clean and safe healthcare environment is a top priority, and while significant progress has been made in sanitization methods, major improvements must still be made. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), even with modern sanitization protocols, about one in 31 hospital patients will acquire at least one healthcare-associated infection daily.
Manual cleaning methods are nearly helpless in combating bacteria, but the battle is not lost. Infection prevention technologies are creating a new era of ultra-clean hospitals and emergency care facilities by implementing highly-efficient UV-disinfection robots.
But the technology is not limited strictly to hospitals and doctors’ offices. The UV-Disinfectant robots can also be used to sanitize EMS vehicles and medicopters and in assisted living and extended care facilities.
UV disinfection robots offer hospital-grade full-room sterilization. Nursing homes, field hospitals, and biohazard zones could all be sanitized in minutes.
The world’s most potent germicidal robots
The robots are fast and efficient, eliminating far more bacteria than humanly possible. Their ability to move around enables them to attack shadowed areas where many harmful organisms manifest in places often missed by sanitization teams.
Infection Prevention Technologies (iPT), an industry leader in microbial desensitizing devices, claims to have built the world’s most powerful UV light disinfection system. The iPT 3200 is the most powerful in the lineup, and it is already impacting many hospitals worldwide.
UV robots are already making an impact on hospitals
UV-Disinfection robot technologies are well underway, helping reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAI). iPT has field-tested its lineup of UV robots and determined through independent studies and research that the robots are significantly more efficient at sanitizing entire rooms, especially on door handles and shadow areas.
In action, the UV-Disinfection Robot IPT 3200 can significantly reduce populations of microbes in under five minutes. But boosting treatment times to 10 minutes yields virtually eliminating all organisms – an alleged claim no other UV robot on the market can assert. “A 6-month, hospital-wide study showed a 34% drop in the incidence of healthcare-associated infections with the use of the IPT 3200 UV robot and specially trained disinfection teams,” according to the company behind it.
The UV bacteria-killing robot in action
In practice, hospital staff reported minor improvements in hospital room turnover times when it takes a room to be prepared for the next patient. However, the robot could perform the task with minimal staff intervention.
A single operator must guide and monitor the robot as it sterilizes a room. Despite the inability to reach behind areas, the UV light penetrates some distance around the robot, sterilizing everything in its proximity. It can also clean entire rooms better than humans, helping to eradicate HAI instances.
Inside, the robot is guided around a room where it determines the level of UV rays to use to maximize sterilization. The robot can carefully navigate around the room while using germicidal UV-C rays to disinfect equipment.
How ultraviolet kills
Ultraviolet (UV) light does not kill microorganisms in the same way chemicals like chlorine does. The light damages DNA inside an organism’s cells, eventually deactivating each cell’s function. Genetic material readily absorbs UV rays at a specific wavelength of 254 nm.
UV light of this wavelength initiates a reaction that produces two molecules of thymine – one of the building blocks of DNA. The molecules bind the internal steps of DNA, preventing a base pair from forming (see picture below for reference).
In low amounts, DNA can repair itself. However, large exposure forces interrupt the formation of base pairs, causing mutations in the genes of DNA. For the intent of disinfection purposes, the mutations are typically fatal.
Not dangerous for humans
The rays are detrimental to microorganisms but are relatively harmless to humans in low exposures. Humans should certainly avoid entering the same room as the robot when activated. Still, the rays are not powerful enough to penetrate glass windows, so rooms must only be temporarily evacuated. Moreover, the robots’ automated process monitors for motion and shuts down if the activity is detected.
Sanitizing hospital rooms with robots and preventing HAI’s
UV light has long been used as an effective disinfectant, and with modern robotic advances, its benefits can be extended further to sterilize entire rooms efficiently.
Hospital rooms need to contain all levels of biohazards, and maintaining such a pristine level of cleanliness requires many hours of routine cleaning. But even with the utmost attention to detail, a human’s dedicated work cannot possibly defeat the constantly multiplying army of bacteria.
“One of the problems facing our healthcare system is hospital-associated infections,” says Nicholas Fitzkee, an independent scientist of the paper. Infections cost “thousands of lives and billions of dollars annually,” he adds.
And that is your lot for today.
It is clear hospitals, and other facilities need more powerful and more efficient devices to help eliminate the risk of getting sick in a place that should be a sanctuary of nothing but recovery. UV-disinfection germ-killing robots are the most potent room disinfectants on the planet. While not heavily used yet, bacteria-killing robots may be the future of sterilization technologies.
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