Freestyle Partners, LLC, announced that frontline nurses who participated in a qualitative study embrace using filtered Far UV-C handheld devices to safely decontaminate in-hospital surfaces and reduce Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAIs) in and around the patient care environment. The purpose of the study was to gain user feedback and resulted in the key finding that nurses are willing to use filtered Far UV-C handheld devices provided they are valuable to patient care and do not hinder the provision of care.
The Central Texas Veterans Health Care System conducted the study, led by Dr. Piyali Chatterjee, PhD, Research Investigator Chair, Subcommittee for Scientific Review (SSR) and her study team. User feedback themes that emerged include time use, complexity, safety (patient and nurse), and technology characteristics. After the opportunity to interact with a device prototype, the participants were open to the idea of a handheld filtered Far UV-C device and they provided valuable feedback on potential uses for such a device as well as design elements that would facilitate adoption of such a device. The full peer-reviewed study is published in Nursing & Health Sciences.
HAIs are a life-threatening issue for patients and a costly issue for healthcare facilities. It is estimated there are more than 1.7M HAIs in U.S. hospitals that cost the healthcare system $28B-$33B in related charges annually. New technology and new disinfection approaches are needed as surface pathogens can persist for days to months and studies show that 50% of surfaces in the healthcare environment do not receive adequate levels of disinfection during manual chemical cleaning.
As HAIs persist, new technologies like filtered Far UV-C handheld devices are a welcomed way to mitigate HAIs.
Freestyle Partners, LLC, provided funding and support for this study.
About Freestyle Partners, LLC
Based in Detroit, Freestyle Partners, LLC is an IP accelerator founded in 2012. For more information, visit www.freestylepartnersllc.com.
About Central Texas Veterans Health Care System
The VA Central Texas Healthcare System is one of the leading health care systems serving over 116,000 Veterans across 39 Texas counties. The VA Central Texas Healthcare System is part of the Veterans Integrated Service Network 17 (VISN 17) which serves nearly 640,000 Veterans across most of Texas and portions of New Mexico. Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes
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