75,000 people in the US die from hospital-acquired infections each year. Common bacteria like C. diff and MRSA spread in hospitals due to poor hand hygiene, overuse of antibiotics, and inadequate cleaning. Only 6% of hospitals do well at preventing the spread of both bacteria. Hospitals can improve by enforcing hand washing, using antibiotics judiciously, and deploying pulsed UV light robots that can disinfect a room in minutes and reduce infection rates by up to 70%.

1. (NU) - Most people scheduled
for a trip to the hospital expect the
facility to be clean, or at least not
harboring organisms that can
cause life-threatening illness.
However, according to the Cen-
ters for Disease Control and Pre-
vention (CDC), approximately
75,000 people in the United
States die from hospital-acquired
infections each year.
Many hospitals struggle to
prevent the spread of two com-
mon, but potentially life-threat-
ening bacteria in particular:
Clostridium difficile (C. diff)
and methicillin-resistant Staphy-
lococcus aureus (MRSA). Poor
hand hygiene, overuse of antibi-
otics and inadequate disinfection
practices are often contributors
to the problem.
Consumer Reports recently
published rankings of which U.S.
hospitals do best and worst at
fighting bacteria that cause in-
fections. Only 6 percent of hos-
pitals scored well against both
C. diff and MRSA.
What can hospitals do to
destroy these organisms and
keep patients safe? Strategies
that have shown success include
improving hand hygiene, an-
tibiotic stewardship and envi-
ronmental disinfection.
• Hand hygiene. Proper hand
hygiene means handwashing/dis-
infection by all health care work-
ers before and after caring for
each patient. Setting up hand san-
itizer stations and reminding hos-
pital staff of hand hygiene pro-
tocol has been shown to improve
compliance and reduce the
spread of infection.
•Antibiotic stewardship. Use
broad-spectrum antibiotics only
when necessary; excessive use of
these drugs can promote the de-
velopment of resistant organisms.
• Environmental disinfection.
Pulsed xenon ultraviolet (UV) light
can destroy the infectious capa-
bility of bacteria and viruses. In-
novative hospitals including MD
Anderson Cancer Center, Stanford,
the University of Washington and
Orlando Health are harnessing this
technology in the form of germ-
zapping robots. Here’s how it
works: Full spectrum UV light
passes through the cell walls of
bacteria, bacterial spores and virus-
es, where it damages the DNA,
RNAand proteins.This renders the
organisms inert and incapable of
causing infection.
More than 300 hospitals,
surgery centers and skilled nurs-
ing facilities in the United States
and Europe are using Xenex
Germ-Zapping Robots for room
disinfection, and have seen in-
fection rates drop up to 70 per-
cent. Pulsed xenon UV devices
take only minutes to completely
disinfect a room and make it safe
for the next patient.
You and your loved ones de-
serve a pathogen-free room during
your hospital stay. Is your hospi-
tal using Xenex robots for
disinfection? Email Xenex at:
stopinfections@xenex.com with
the name of a hospital, and the
company will let you know. Mean-
while, visit xenex.com for more in-
formation about how Xenex robots
can make hospitals safer.
How Clean isYour
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