In 2011, 721,800 healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) were reported in the United States. Daily and terminal disinfection of hospital areas such as patient rooms are critically important to help prevent HAI and involve extensive disinfection of the room before a new patient is admitted to the room. Additionally, portable medical equipment (PME) has been implicated in outbreaks of HAIs and the importance of systematic disinfection of PME has been recognized and included in infection control guidelines. Although the Joint Commission requires documentation of disinfection of hospital areas and PME, there is no systematic solution for tracking disinfection methods, location, personnel, and time/date of disinfection. Xenex proposes to develop a prototype disinfection tracking system (DTS) based on a patent application licensed from the Veterans' Affairs (VA) Department, which will have the following capabilities: an RFID tag to be placed in an areas or on PME that can manually or automatically detect a disinfection event, a database that registers the tags and reports the disinfection status, and an indicator placed in the area or on the PME that displays the disinfection status and changes based on pre-set parameters such as time since last disinfection and/or movement of the PME. At the conclusion of the proposed project, a full product roadmap, including hardware specifications and the logic for the software to process disinfection inputs will have been created and validated, paving the way for commercialization in Phase II of the work. This process will involve systematic observation of disinfection events in an acute care setting and a simulation of those events to validate and develop the DTS. Our long-term goal is to improve patient outcomes through reducing the risk of contaminated surfaces and PME through fully commercializing the DTS.
Public Health Relevance Statement: The project will develop and validate a disinfection tracking system to help assure that areas and equipment in the hospital setting are properly and routinely disinfected in order to avoid potential transmission of pathogens to patients and healthcare workers through a contaminated patient care environment. This project has a potential impact on patient outcomes through the prevention of hospital acquired infections as well as assisting with a burdensome documentation and tracking issue in healthcare. Furthermore, the project will create innovation through the commercialization of intellectual property developed licensed from the VeteransÂ’ Affairs Department.
Project Terms: Acute; Area; base; Caring; Collaborations; commercialization; Computer software; cost; Databases; Disease Outbreaks; Disinfection; Documentation; Environment; Epidemiologic Methods; Equipment; Event; Frequencies; Goals; Guidelines; Health Personnel; Healthcare; Hospitals; Hour; Human Resources; improved; Infection; Infection Control; Ink; innovation; Intellectual Property; Joints; Laboratories; Legal patent; Licensing; Location; Logic; Manuals; Maps; Measures; Medical; Methods; Molecular; Monitor; Movement; Nosocomial Infections; Operating Rooms; Outcome Study; pathogen; Patient Care; Patient-Focused Outcomes; Patients; Patients' Rooms; Pattern; Phase; prevent; Prevention; Process; prototype; Reporting; Risk; sensor; simulation; Site; software development; Surface; System; Testing; Time; TimeLine; transmission process; United States; usability; Veterans; Work
