Clostridium difficile (C. diff) spores are resistant to routine hospital disinfectants and require extra cleaning measures. So Mayo Clinic’s Rochester (Minn.) campus is now using robots to fight the bacteria, according to an article on the Infection Control Today website.
The stationary devices emit pulses of ultraviolet (UV) light that kill C. diff spores on exposed surfaces.
Mayo piloted the devices in October 2014 as part of a quality improvement project with the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and five healthcare systems nationwide.
During the six-month test period, Mayo saw a 30 percent decrease in C. diff infections in the group of units that received the robot cleaning.
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