TRU-D SmartUVC Eliminates Superbugs, Addresses Hospital Reimbursement and Reporting Requirements

Healthcare-associated infections caused by pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) a bacterium that can cause life-threatening bloodstream infections, pneumonia and surgical site infections, are putting more than patient lives at risk every single day. They're also poised to take big bites out of hospital budgets across the country -- to the tune of millions -- as new payment penalties and reporting requirements are being implemented by the government and a majority of private health insurance companies. As a result, many hospital leaders are looking for tools, such as TRU-D SmartUVC, that promote patient safety and ensure high reimbursement payments, keeping both their patient population and their operating budgets as healthy as possible.

"As infection prevention plans continue to expand, many hospitals are relying on innovative technology like TRU-D to ensure patient safety, reduce HAIs and guarantee the highest reimbursement rates," says Chuck Dunn, president of TRU-D SmartUVC, LLC. "Hospitals care about their patients' wellness and getting them on the road to recovery. But now, they will be punished financially for not taking the proper steps to do just that."

Many hospitals have already found a solution to that problem by implementing TRU-D, oftentimes choosing to deploy a fleet of TRU-Ds across a health care system. The robot, which uses UV-C light to effectively disinfect hospital environments and is a validated weapon against deadly hospital pathogens, is the only portable UV disinfection system that precisely measures reflected UV-C emissions with Sensor360 to automatically calculate the pathogen-lethal UV dose required for proper and consistent disinfection of health care environments.

In the most recent issue of Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the article "Strategies to Prevent Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Transmission and Infection in Acute Care Hospitals: 2014 Update" Calfee, et al. present a clear and direct updated guideline based on scientific data to detect and prevent MRSA in healthcare environments. The practice recommendation reports that although MRSA HAIs have declined, according to the National Healthcare Safety Network, many patient groups are still at risk. NHSN reports that MRSA transmission most commonly occurs among patients who have weakened immune systems and those who undergo invasive medical procedures. The recommendation update then points to a number of prevention strategies such as monitoring and detection programs, cleaning and disinfection routines and efficient and accurate reporting to key leaders -- all elements TRU-D is already providing to hospitals across the globe.

In 2010, TRU-D was validated by three researchers from University of North Carolina Health Care conducting a study on the effectiveness of a UV-C-emitting device in eliminating nosocomial pathogens found in contaminated hospital rooms. By measuring the MRSA and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci counts in patient rooms before and after patient occupation, researchers concluded that TRU-D was effective in eliminating these deadly pathogens. Specifically, the device destroyed vegetative bacteria on contaminated surfaces both in direct sight, as well as behind objects. Since this study, TRU-D has been validated by 10 additional studies, all concluding that TRU-D is effective in eliminating harmful pathogens.

"With TRU-D, hospitals can eliminate 99.9 percent of germs like MRSA that lurk on high-touch surfaces and in shadowed spaces, providing infection preventionists and environmental service teams with a no-nonsense, no-guessing tool to 'finish the job' after traditional cleaning methods are carried out," Dunn says.

TRU-D's latest innovation, iTRU-D, is the only secure cloud-based infection prevention data tracking tool available with a UV disinfection robot on the market and addresses the recommendation to report MRSA data and MRSA prevention efforts to key leaders on a regular and frequent basis. With iTRU-D, disinfection data is instantaneously uploaded during every room cycle, and hospital staff has easy access and reporting capabilities through a custom portal.

TRU-D SmartUVC is the device of choice for nearly all existing independent research on UV disinfection technology, including a $2 million infection reduction study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Epicenter Program at Duke University and the University of North Carolina. More than 200 TRU-Ds have been deployed to disinfect hospitals across the U.S. and internationally, including the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland; the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, South Carolina; and Houston Methodist in Houston, Texas.

Source: Lumalier Corp.