There were two problems facing this company in the Americas, one affecting the health of their staff, and the other affecting the quality of their product. Staff were frequently on sick leave, and they would often attribute the sickness to work. They felt they had picked up germs from shared spaces such as dining areas, locker rooms, and workspaces. The company felt compelled to do something to protect its employees.
As a manufacturing facility, ingredients and other materials used in production were stored on-site. Through random inspections the finished products occasionally showed signs of microbial contamination, resulting in holds, delays, and recalls.
The company opted for an automated room disinfection solution, EPIC iO AIR. It was scheduled to run every night, with no manual intervention or human variability.
It disinfected every exposed surface, which had already been cleaned by housekeeping. The 95.7% drop in germ count is now being correlated to staff health and product integrity
Both the infections and cross-contaminations were surprising because the facility contracted out daily cleaning, which did not include thorough disinfecting. Also, low ATP results proved that the swabbed surfaces were clean.
To test for level of disinfection instead of ‘visible cleanliness,’ EPIC iO and its partner ProcKeep, performed microbial counts using Hygiena’s EnSURE Touch Total Viable Count device. Cleaning reduced germs by only 13%, much less than they expected from ATP counts. In other words, just because it was clean did not make it safe.
CLEAN DOES NOIT MEAN SAFE:
Low ATP counts indicate low amounts of organic matter, making it harder for germs to grow. But low ATP does not mean low germ counts. To reduce germs, you need to disinfect. To measure the improvement use TVC, not ATP.
CLEAN FIRST AND THEN DISINFECT:
Disinfection requires direct access to the germs. Germs are sheltered and protected by organic debris such as dirt and dust. Housekeeping needs to address cleaning first, otherwise, disinfection will be ineffective.
AUTOMATE THE ENTIRE SPACE:
Housekeeping is overstretched and unsupervised and susceptible to human error such as missing spots. If they focus on vacuuming and detergent-based wiping and mopping, the autonomous EPIC iO AIR will run every night, seven days a week. And EPIC iO AIR does not involve people, it will reach every square inch of the room, including equipment, tables, chairs, floors, walls, ceilings, handles, and switches.
Executive Summary
The solution consisted of a wall- or ceiling-mounted EPIC iO AIR unit per room, near the HVAC inlets, and as far from the HVAC returns as possible to maximize disinfection.
It was connected through WiFi to a nearby cellular modem for notifications, control, and reporting through the App. The unit only requires electricity, so it was connected to a nearby outlet.
The magnetic contact was attached to the door, and the PIR was attached to the ceiling to immediately disable the unit in case motion was detected.
The units were scheduled to run seven days a week for a cumulative weekly disinfection of 48 hours:
Sunday to Thursday from 10 PM – 4 AM
Friday to Saturday from 10 PM – 7 AM
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