Wiping out pathogens with multi-area cleaning

Crisis to crystal ball

Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic, what do you envision for the future of hospital and healthcare cleaning and disinfection? HPN shares these insights from industry professionals.

“The reality of COVID-19 and fear of an inevitable future outbreak have significantly heightened demand for new technologies and processes for mitigating the spread of dangerous pathogens. These will ultimately need to address air AND surface contamination in the safest, most effective and economical way. The biggest surprise for many may be that adopting alternative technologies like Krypton disinfection lighting sooner would have saved a considerable amount of money and lives for the healthcare providers, their patients, the insurance companies and federal and local governments, with or without the pandemic. This realization is leading to important additional investment now and going forward, which will significantly mitigate, if not eliminate, both the risks we were facing before as well as tomorrow when the next inevitable pathogen arrives.” 

Patrick J. Piper, Far Uv Technologies, Inc.

“We hope that the COVID-19 pandemic will spur an investment in public health and empower hospital infection preventionists and EVS directors to get the budgets they deserve to make infection prevention a priority.”

Sarah Simmons, Xenex Disinfection Services

“Make sure you have the proper tools and disinfection processes and procedures in place today to protect patients and frontline workers tomorrow. We expect a more focused, better prepared approach to environmental cleaning and disinfection. Hospitals and other public places will have a greater appreciation for Infection Prevention and Environmental strategies that can measure results and hold people accountable. Increasing sophistication in UV disinfection and complementary cleaning technologies will improve cleaning, disinfection, staff safety and patient outcomes.”

Steven Baiocchi, Steriliz, LLC

“I expect healthcare facilities will improve disinfection practices across a number of high-traffic environments moving forward. When COVID-19 case counts began to rise, our early customers had the disinfection systems in place to rapidly and effectively eliminate pathogens. Just as healthcare facilities are increasing stockpiles of PPE in response to the severe global shortage at the onset of the pandemic, so too should they be investing in a disinfection system that can be immediately available in the event of a public health crisis.”

David St. Clair, Halosil International

“When speaking to our customers, we hear that the future will include more conversations around how they can incrementally improve the cleaning and disinfection process, knowing that things like product supply will be a larger part of the discussion. The COVID-19 pandemic has reaffirmed for the industry that things can change quickly and having a backup plan for a worst-case scenario is something all facilities should have. The need to be nimble has created a reason to evaluate the current supply chain and determine what alternatives are available when supply becomes a concern. Lastly, this pandemic has forced facility leaders to think about how they communicate with their teams as well as how to promote the safety of their staff and essential workers, so they can continue to do what is best for everyone in their facility.”

Ben Oberle, 3M Commercial Solutions Division

“Healthcare facilities have been tested through this pandemic on a number of fronts, which will serve as key learnings for the future:

• Determining if they have products that are efficacious against key pathogens of concern.
• Ensuring that they have enough product and PPE available for their staff.
• Ensuring that their supply chain is flexible enough to address future crises.
• Deploying processes that keep staff, residents and patients safe, including evidence-based cleaning and disinfection processes, staff monitoring and validation tools, to continuously improve processes and target training, and, as needed, adjunct disinfection processes, like UV-C disinfection, to address any variability in practice.

Having the staff prepared as well as adequate inventories, protocols and best practices will help to maximize safety in the healthcare environment. Establishing an emergency management system to address a public health crisis and protecting staff and patients is a priority.”

Larinda Becker, Diversey, Inc.

“In the near future, we will likely continue to use automation and new technologies to better clean and disinfect, and to help meet the requirement for higher frequency cleaning brought on by the pandemic. Electrostatic technology is just beginning to scratch the surface of pandemic and post-pandemic disinfection. I also believe that the cleaning regimen will be different, including additional accountability from all parties. For example, electrostatic technology can be used by the professional team for conditioned deep cleans, but we will likely also see building occupants doing their part to keep spaces clean.”

Katherine Velez, Clorox Healthcare

“To better prepare for any possible future public health crisis or even a second wave of COVID-19, hospitals and healthcare facilities need to now develop written policies and protocols, outline a schedule for cleaning frequency and accountable discipline by area and educate staff who perform cleaning tasks. We need to get back to basics, such as strict adherence to product instructions for use, cleaning methodically around the room (clockwise or counterclockwise), cleaning from high-to-low and avoiding cross contamination by cleaning from clean-to-dirty. The CDC also recommends using products with EPA-approved emerging viral pathogens claims against SARS-CoV-2 (e.g., EPA List N). Facilities should have a robust supply of these disinfecting products in stock.”

Doe Kley, Clorox Healthcare

“Infection control must always be at the forefront of the strategic plan of the hospital. As new infectious agents appear, the processes must already be providing high-level disinfection. Organizations cannot wait for a new infectious agent to appear to start improving processes. Also, there must be recognition by hospital leadership of the heightened role that environmental services play in combating infection risks that were highlighted during the pandemic.”

Edmond Hooker, clinical advisor to Trinity Guardion

“Increased focus on supplemental disinfection strategies to augment the manual cleaning and disinfection needed to remove organic soilage. More environmentally conscious approaches to disinfectant development, distribution and use and more “set it and walk away” strategies to optimize human capital. Expansion and broader adoption of continuously active disinfection products that continue to kill microbes between cleaning opportunities. More reliable, reproducible and quantitative assessments of cleaning and disinfection of surfaces for quality assurance.”

Marc-Oliver Wright, Professional Disposables International, Inc. (PDI)

“A continued effort toward advanced and automated disinfection technologies that supplement the amazing job cleaning staff do every day. I also expect we’ll continue to see momentum toward the internet of things, just as we have at home with devices that can clean our houses on their own or allow us to re-order groceries by voice. Specifically, I anticipate more seamlessly connected devices that operate, transfer data and talk to each other more autonomously. The pandemic has widened the broader public’s adoption of the core Infection Prevention best practices that healthcare professionals perform every day. The increased focus on enhanced environmental hygiene and frequent handwashing, in particular, can be of great benefit on an ongoing basis.”

Peter Veloz, UltraViolet Devices, Inc. (UVDI)