Continuous Environmental Disinfection at the flip of a switch
Orange County, CA - August 26th 2016 - Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) affect 5 to 10 percent of hospitalized patients in the U.S. per year. These infections are responsible for around 99,000 deaths each year and an estimated twenty billion in healthcare costs. You can pick up these easily preventable infections from patients, health care staff, or visitors in addition to contaminated equipment, linens, or air droplets.
HAI’s are major problems created from preventable causes. Sanitation and sterilization protocols are put into place, but what if there was another way?
Indigo-Clean is lighting that continuously kills harmful bacteria in the air or on the ground and other surfaces with visible light. It is manufactured by Kenall, who partnered with the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, which developed, proved, and patented the technology.
The light fixture emits 405nm and then reflects off of walls and surfaces, penetrating harmful microorganisms. The light is absorbed into the microorganism, causing a chemical reaction that excites molecules into producing Reactive Oxygen Species that inactivates the bacteria, not allowing for it to re-populate the space and killing it from within.
The technology and its effectiveness have been the subject of study and discussion in more than 20 peer-reviewed academic publications and 30 conference presentations since 2008. Studies completed by Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Froedtert Hospital tested the effectiveness in a 450 square foot waiting area in a Gastroenterology Diagnostic clinic.
Dr. Nathan Ledeboer, Associate Professor of Pathology at the Medical College of Wisconsin said, “…where the lighting deployment was optimized across the room, we were able to improve the bioburden reduction to more than 70%,” Looking at these results aggregated with additional cost per patient due to HAI suggest that preventing even a single infection would create a positive ROI and drive down costs for healthcare providers.Standard dimming offers flexible light levels and the product can be operated in two ways, White and Indigo disinfections modes. White mode allows for continuous environmental disinfection during procedures and cleaning. Indigo mode is used when the room isn’t in use, providing increased and continuous environmental disinfection. It should be known that the product was not made to replace sanitation protocols. Indigo-Clean was made to use in tandem with current disinfection efforts to reduce harmful bacteria in the environment.
The devices are now available for commercial sales in both the United States and Canada including a LED 5 year warranty.
