ICT, Xenex Offer "Improving Patient Safety Through Enhanced Environmental Disinfection" Webinar

Infection Control Today magazine and Xenex Healthcare Services today announced the availability of a free Webinar, Improving Patient Safety through Enhanced Environmental Disinfection. The Webinar, led by Dr. William Jarvis, one of the worlds most respected leaders in healthcare-associated infection (HAI) control and a frequently published expert in infectious diseases, infection control, epidemiology, public health, and pediatrics,  educates participants about how healthcare facilities can improve patient safety through enhanced disinfection technologies.

This educational presentation covers the epidemiological significance of environmental surfaces on HAIs and the opportunity to improve patient safety through enhanced disinfection. Attendees learn about new technologies in environmental disinfection and develop a plan for evaluating and selecting those technologies.

Jarvis states, Automated room disinfection is the next generation. It provides safer rooms by decreasing the microbiological burden, particularly of pathogens that we know are contaminating the environment, and that increases the risk of infection for the next patient going into that room. And it provides improved patient safety by reducing the risk of those infections.

HAIs are the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While hospitals have put efforts in place to prevent the spread of HAIs, very little progress has been made in eliminating them.  Several recently published studies have proven the inadequacies of cleaning practices in healthcare settings and other studies show that such inadequacies increase the HAI risk for the patient.

More rapid, cost-effective, and microbiologically effective methods to clean/disinfect the hospital environment would reduce your costs, enhance environmental cleaning/disinfection, and most importantly improve patient safety, says Jarvis.

Mark Stibich , PhD, chief scientific officer of Xenex and a John Hopkins-trained epidemiologist, echoed Jarviss conclusion. Hospital housekeeping teams face an impossible challenge because they dont have the time, tools or resources to effectively disinfect patient rooms. Better hand hygiene and other preventative programs arent enough to battle the HAI problem, says Stibich. Room disinfection technology has come a long way, and Webinar attendees will learn about how its now possible for hospitals to effectively use automated disinfection systems throughout their entire facility, resulting in a safer environment for patients.

Visit Xenex.com to view the Webinar.

Xenex develops pulsed xenon UV disinfection systems for the advanced cleaning of the patient environment in healthcare facilities. The Xenex system is the fastest, safest, most cost-effective, and most portable and easy to use system available today among room disinfection technologies. The Xenex mission is to significantly reduce the number of HAIs that impact the health and lives of millions of patients and their families and become the new standard method for disinfection in healthcare facilities worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.xenex.com