Rochester Regional Health enhances infection prevention with electrostatic technology
Infection prevention is critical in busy hospitals and emergency rooms, especially during periods of high-intensity flu activity. Rochester Regional Health has added the Clorox Total 360 System to help fight the spread of flu and enhance disinfection protocols for vulnerable hospitalized patients.
Since October 1, there have been as many as 32.8 million cases of the flu,15.4 million flu-related medical visits, and up to 41,500 deaths caused by the flu nationwide.1 Flu activity spiked in March as a late-season flu continued to affect New York.2
The Clorox Total 360 System combines electrostatic technology with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered Clorox® disinfecting and sanitizing solutions and works by charging the solution, so that when sprayed it is attracted to and uniformly coats surfaces, including hard to reach areas that conventional cleaning methods might miss.
With this innovative technology, Rochester Regional Health can achieve comprehensive surface treatment of up to 18,000 square feet per hour, helping ensure all areas of the 525-bed acute-care facility are properly disinfected.
“At Rochester Regional Health, we take infection prevention very seriously,” said Melissa Bronstein, MPA, BSN, RN, CIC Director, Infection Prevention & Control at Rochester Regional Health. “With the recent flu outbreak in our community, we knew we needed to boost our protocols to ensure our facilities could maintain the standard of care we put forth throughout the rest of the year. Investing in the Clorox Total 360® System serves as a useful adjunct to our rigorous standards for providing a clean environment for patients.”
Rochester Regional Health uses the Clorox Total 360® System daily throughout the facility. The system is used to provide an additional layer of protection following discharge cleaning in all patient isolation rooms, as well as in high-risk areas like the emergency department and operating rooms and high-traffic spaces such as waiting areas, elevators, staff offices, public restrooms and surfaces including wheelchairs and gurneys.
“Our team consists of 160 employees who work around the clock to maintain the hospital,” said Liz Follaco, Operations Manager of Environmental Services at Rochester Regional Health. “We’ve included the Clorox Total 360 System in our daily cleaning regimen – starting at 4 a.m. and covering every inch of the facility by the end of the day. Since the inception of the system, our staff feels empowered knowing they’re going the extra mile to properly disinfect the hospital and safeguard our patient’s environments.”
1 https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm. Accessed March 28, 2019.
2 https://www2.monroecounty.gov/files/health/Flu/2018-2019/Monroe County Influenza Surveillance – Week 11 (WE 3-16-2019).pdf, Accessed March 27, 2019.