ICT's Product Locator: May 2023
Infection Control Today's® Product Locator is a monthly column highlighting some of the latest advanced technology in the infection prevention field.
Infection Control Today's Product Locator
To help improve the vital work of those infection preventionists, nurses, and physicians in the infection control field, Infection Control Today® (ICT®) for interesting, supportive, and innovative products. These are this month's picks.
CloroxPro HealthyClean Introduction to Healthcare
The CloroxPro HealthyClean Introduction to Healthcare is a new instructionally designed microlearning module for environmental service (EVS) managers and supervisors, as part of CloroxPro HealthyClean, an online learning platform offering best-in-class education and training about cleaning for health effectively, efficiently, and safely. This new module provides an interactive microlearning resource to increase understanding of health care–specific cleaning and disinfecting considerations. It follows the same instructional design principles of CloroxPro’s HealthyClean certificate courses to ensure a high-quality learning experience.
The microlearning module is 20 minutes long and can be taken alone or with other CloroxPro HealthyClean certificate courses. It includes an overview of infection prevention and control, a review of the types of spaces staff will encounter, and considerations for cleaning and disinfecting patient care areas. Although the micro-learning module is designed for EVS managers and supervisors, EVS staff and other hospital staff, including infection preventionists, can all benefit from this training. Knowledge gained from this training can help health care workers safeguard patient environments and reduce the spread of health care–associated infections.
The CloroxPro HealthyClean learning platform currently offers the only industry-wide on-demand certificate courses designed for frontline cleaning professionals accredited by the American National Standards Institute National Accreditation Board, meeting the highest standards for program quality and training comprehension.
CloroxPro continues investing in its online learning courses, as its HealthyClean™ Certificate Program — Trained Specialist Course is now available in English and Spanish. This course is a 3rd party accredited, comprehensive, and interactive on-demand course that explains the role and impact of people, products, and processes when cleaning for health. It covers actions that can be taken to do the job safely and effectively and the science behind how germs spread. It provides easy-to-follow procedures and best practices to ensure facilities can be cleaned and disinfected in a way that is efficient and sustainable long-term.
https://www.cloroxpro.com/resource-center/cloroxpro-healthyclean/
Surfacide GLŌ PX Program
Surfacide, the unmatched leader in UV-C light technology, has recently developed an innovative patient experience program, GLŌ PX, to improve disinfection efficacy in hospital environments and patient experience scores around cleanliness. Knowing there is a strong correlation between patient satisfaction and perceived cleanliness, GLŌ PX focuses on the intersection between the two, aiding in improving a facility’s Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores.
GLŌ PX is led by a team of Surfacide experts who design tailored programs for each partner organization. By running a 5- to 7-minute low-level disinfection cycle daily in a patient’s hospital bathroom with Surfacide’s Helios robotic UV-C light solution and a personalized conversation from a certified GLŌ patient ambassador, patients can better understand some of the enhanced cleaning protocols that are helping to reduce bioburden and keep them healthy. The facility also receives custom scripting, training, and data analytics reports.
By incorporating GLŌ PX, hospitals can create a memorable patient cleaning experience and provide more opportunities for EVS staff-patient interaction. “Creating the GLŌ PX Program made sense on so many levels. We know good patient experience is the key to better outcomes for all—the patient, the hospital, and the staff,”Kendra Bryan, RN, CPXP , national director of patient experience at Surfacide, told Infection Control Today.
https://www.surfacide.com/glo-px
SeptiCyte RAPID test
Sepsis is an overwhelming immune response to infection that can be life-threatening. Immunexpress’ SeptiCyte RAPID test is meant to ensure the timely and accurate diagnosis of sepsis, which is critical to allow clinicians to rapidly make correct treatment decisions that can improve prognoses and save lives. Lack of reliable sepsis diagnostics can also lead to overtreatment, overwhelmingly burdening health care systems and interfering with antibiotic stewardship efforts. As traditional methods of sepsis diagnosis require 24 to 48 hours and produce clinically actionable results for only a tiny percentage of patients, Immunexpress’ goal is to provide better diagnostic tools for sepsis to meet this pressing need.
Immunexpress’ SeptiCyte RAPID technology is based on knowledge of the host immune response and tests for dysregulation indicating sepsis using a gene expression signature. The SeptiCyte RAPID test is cleared by the FDA for clinical in vitro diagnostic (IVD) use in the United States and has been Continuing Education–marked IVD within the European Union. It can be run directly on blood samples in a single-use cartridge, producing results in approximately 1 hour via a SeptiScore, which indicates sepsis risk.
“With SeptiCyte RAPID, we are testing for the first clinical signs of sepsis and generating actionable results quickly. This is critically important because mortality risk increases by 8% as each hour goes by,” said Rollie Carlson, PhD, CEO of Immunexpress.
Bugs + Drugs from epocrates
Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health threat. According to the CDC’s Antibiotic Resistance Threats Report, more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the United States each year, and more than 35,000 individuals die due to these infections.1 Clinicians can effectively combat antimicrobial resistance by harnessing localized resistance and susceptibility patterns into antibiotic prescribing decisions.
Last year, epocrates launched Bugs + Drugs, the only mobile solution to offer clinicians information on geolocalized antibiotic susceptibility patterns with associated drug information to promote optimal antibiotic prescribing. Available at no cost to clinicians in the epocrates mobile app, Bugs + Drugs delivers a list of bacteria found in clinical specimens by zip code. In the app, clinicians can tap on a bacteria name to reveal susceptibility data by drug. From there, the drug links seamlessly to epocrates’ drug content, including dosing facts, drug interaction details, and safety information.
“Bugs + Drugs fills a major gap in the outpatient setting and helps clinicians make better and more informed antibiotic prescribing choices at the point of care,” said Anne Meneghetti, MD, executive director of medical information at epocrates. “With our tool, clinicians can tailor patient care while minimizing the impact on antibiotic resistance, which is vital to reduce bacterial resistance trends for the future.”
Reference
1. CDC. The biggest antibiotic-resistant threats in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published July 15, 2022. Accessed April 14, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/biggest-threats.html
LayerJot EasyTray
LayerJot’s surgical tray count sheet management and assembly solution, EasyTray, is bringing much-needed innovation and accessibility to sterile processing departments of all sizes. EasyTray is a no-install, web-based platform that gives sterile processing departments a highly effective solution to standardize and improve the quality of their surgical instrument data, count sheets, and tray assembly processes.
EasyTray starts with LayerJot’s industry-leading catalog of surgical instruments (as seen in LayerJot’s free surgical instrument directory app), a simple-to-use count sheet builder, and computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted tray assembly to ensure every tray is quickly and efficiently assembled with every instrument in optimal condition every time.
“[Although] we continue to maintain a key focus on our AI solutions in development for surgical instruments at the [operating room] back table, we could not ignore that no matter the size and complexity of any given hospital or surgery center, sterile processing technicians are under tremendous strain. They are expected to play a critical role in ensuring patient safety by inspecting and assembling surgical trays. However, they are often not afforded adequate training or tools to do their job well,” Etay Gafni, CEO of LayerJot, told Infection Control Today.
https://www.layerjot.com/easytray
UVDI-360 Room Sanitizer
The new UVDI-360 Room Sanitizer, equipped with UV Smart Connect, features proven, fast, and effective UV room disinfection that is trusted by more than 1100 hospitals worldwide. The new UVDI-360 is independently proven in 18 published hospital studies to disinfect high-risk locations rapidly and effectively.
The UVDI-360’s recommended room treatment time for sporicidal disinfection of an average-sized patient room is only 10 minutes, and an operating room is only 15 minutes. The UVDI-360 uses proprietary UV-C dose-confirmation technology, UV Dose Verify, to set custom usage protocols.
As Candida auris and multidrug-resistant organisms surge, the new UVDI-360 is independently proven to inactivate 99.99% of35 microorganisms in 5 minutes at 8-ft distance and SARS-CoV-2 at 12-ft distance. The UVDI-360 is also independently verified to inactivate 99% of C auris, which can withstand many chemical disinfectants, in 10 minutes at 8 ft and 99.99% inactivation in 20 minutes at 8-ft distance.
Innovative communications technology UV Smart Connect simplifies UV room disinfection workflow by automating device data transfer, reporting, and health notifications to UVDI’s cloud-based operator portal. Automating data reporting required in health care facilities eliminates time-consuming labor for busy health care professionals.
They are proven to be durably built to perform in challenging health care environments and are available on all leading group purchasing organizations.
Long COVID: Urgent Findings, Including Brain Alterations, Call for Renewed Public Health Focus
October 21st 2024New research highlights long COVID’s global impact, cognitive decline, and societal consequences, urging renewed focus on prevention, including vaccination, mask use, and better air quality.
