The ROI has been our increased confidence in our clean environment. In 2016, our C-Diff rate was 0.61. After we implemented UVC disinfection in 2017, it dropped to 0.18. Though actual cost savings from HAI avoidance can be difficult to quantify, we know from national statistics that HAIs can cost an average of $15,000, so we do believe those savings are real.
Tru-D was the obvious choice because we wanted something that was easy to use and reduced the probability of human error. We love the fact that our Tru-D robot doesn’t need to be repositioned to disinfect a specific area within a room.
We strive to ‘stay ahead of the curve’ when it comes to patient safety, so when evaluating disinfection processes, UV application was a natural next step. Tru-D’s ability to assess the space and antimicrobial UV dosage was key in this decision.
Having Tru-D in our facility helps ensure we are providing the safest environment possible for our patients and staff. We are consistently looking for proactive measures that we can take to remain on the leading-edge of technology and patient safety. Our environmental staff does an excellent job with cleaning our facility, but Tru-D will ensure that no germs or pathogens are left behind.
The acquisition of UV technology is simply another way that we’re working to safeguard the well-being of every single patient who walks through our doors and protect the integrity of our health care environment.
Last year, our hospital had 81 cases of hospital-acquired C. diff. We’re on pace to have about one-third fewer hospital-acquired infections of all kinds this year, a decrease I attribute to the whole-room disinfection technologies we’ve added to our manual cleaning.
Using an iPad outside the room, our staff turns on Tru-D remotely and begins a single disinfection cycle. The robot is able to compensate for room variables such as size, shape and contents to deliver the precise dose of UV energy needed throughout the entire room. The technology can clean an entire room, top to bottom, from a single location allowing our staff to perform other tasks during the disinfection process.
Tru-D is the only UV disinfection system on the market that has been evaluated for effectiveness in a randomized clinical trial — conducted by Duke and funded by the CDC. We are pleased to now be able to offer this infection prevention technology to our patients and to the community.
The Sensor360® technology set Tru-D apart. Rather than estimating the necessary UV dose or moving a unit to multiple placements in a room, Tru-D is able to analyze a space and provide a measured, lethal dose of UV light to provide total room disinfection from a single cycle in a single location.