Hospitals Adopt STERIS Advanced Room Sterilization Technology in the Fight Against Superbugs

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MENTOR, Ohio -- STERIS Corporation announces it has received the first orders for its VaproSure Room Sterilizer from several U.S. hospitals. The VaproSure Room Sterilizer incorporates STERIS patented technologies and is the first product of its kind for the healthcare market. Since being introduced in June, systems have been ordered by Wellmont Health System (Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky) Lake Hospital System (Ohio), and the VA Boston Healthcare System (Massachusetts).

As highlighted in recent national news media reports, the persistent spread of germs and infections in healthcare facilities is a significant challenge for patient safety and compromises the ability for hospitals to deliver economically efficient healthcare services. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is estimated that 1 in every 20 patients in the U.S. contracts an infection while in the hospital, resulting in 99,000 deaths each year with costs to the U.S. healthcare industry estimated at $30 billion per year.

Earlier this month, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published study results indicating that MRSA is killing more people in the United States each year than the AIDS virus. Commenting on JAMA's findings in The Washington Post, Scott K. Fridkin, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC said, "This is a significant public health problem. We should be very worried."

Modern hospitals are the highest expression of life-saving skill and yet these environments can harbor unseen threats that compromise health, life and institutional integrity. Despite the best efforts of the environmental services department, traditional cleaning practices are limited in their effectiveness. With the VaproSure Room Sterilizer, it is now possible to sterilize all of the exposed pre-cleaned surfaces within a sealed room. STERIS is the only company to offer a complete hygiene solution to hospitals as a way to enhance their infection control programs and improve the efficiency of their operations.

The VaproSure Room Sterilizer utilizes Vaprox(R) Sterilant (EPA Registration No. 58779-4) to create a dry sterilization vapor that inactivates the full spectrum of biological contaminates on dry, pre-cleaned, exposed, porous and non-porous surfaces within a sealed hospital room. The chemistry is recognized as sporicidal, bacteriacidal, fungicidal and virucidal. Additionally, the technology is environmentally friendly, reducing to water vapor and oxygen at the conclusion of the cycle.

Wellmont Hospital System

"We became the first health system in the nation to purchase STERIS VaproSure Room Sterilizers for our hospitals because we believe this technology is a breakthrough advancement for patient safety and infection control," said Dr. Richard Salluzzo, president and chief executive officer of Wellmont Health System and the founder of the national Safest Hospital Alliance. "As a founding member of the Safest Hospital Alliance, Wellmont is committed to utilizing processes, programs and technologies that bring about real, measurable improvement in patient safety. The VaproSure technology will dramatically enhance our existing infection prevention programs by eliminating biological threats that exist on the many surfaces within a hospital environment. This purchase is another example of our overarching commitment to achieve complete patient safety in our hospitals."

Lake Hospital System

Lake Hospital System is the first community-based healthcare system to purchase VaproSure Room Sterilizers. "Community-based hospitals are the backbone of the U.S. healthcare infrastructure," states Cynthia Moore-Hardy, president and chief executive officer of Lake Hospital System. "The World Health Organization states that with over 2 billion passengers flying each year an outbreak in any part of the world is only a few hours from becoming an imminent threat somewhere else. That could be our community and we want to be prepared. At Lake Hospital System, infectious disease prevention is one of most important things we can do to safeguard the health of our patients, employees and community. The ability to sterilize all of the exposed surfaces in rooms where vulnerable patients receive care is a significant step forward in the ongoing battle against infections at their source."

The ER One Institute and Washington Hospital Center

"The ER One Institute trialed the VaproSure Room Sterilizer within days of STERIS expanding the registration for Vaprox and the VaproSure Room Sterilizer enabling the first use of the technology in healthcare settings," said Dr. Mark Smith, chairman of Emergency Medicine at Washington Hospital Center and professor of Emergency Medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine. "We were so impressed with its ability to sterilize all of the exposed surfaces within a hospital room, that we designed our new emergency room expansion with integrated VaproSure Room Sterilizer capabilities. The expanded ER will be operational by year's end and will include the ability to sterilize individual ER rooms with the VaproSure Room Sterilizer. I believe that the VaproSure Room Sterilizer can be one of the key components of a comprehensive program for infection control. As germs become more sophisticated, so does our need for technology to address them. I am personally tremendously excited by the possibilities of this new approach to eliminating contamination in hospitals."

Source: STERIS Corporation

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