Infusion centers function as a vital part of how we care for patients undergoing life-saving treatment for serious or chronic infections that do not respond to oral antibiotics. Many of these patients have reduced immune response or carry pre-existing medical conditions, leaving them increasingly vulnerable to infection, and now considering COVID-19, infusion centers have become a worrying hotspot for disease transmission.
New COVID-19 safety protocols that include physical distancing and staggering appointments present issues of overbooking and uneven patient loads, creating a substantial challenge for both patients waiting for treatments and nurses providing care.
Predictably, this has led to these facilities facing a significant and steady logjam. And unfortunately, due to the nature or severity of some illnesses, many patients lack the luxury to miss or re-schedule an infusion due to overbooking.
Infection prevention and control are always a top priority at infusion centers. So naturally, infusion centers come equipped with a great deal of experience in caring for patients with weakened immune systems. But highly-transmissible aerosolized diseases like COVID-19 represent a new challenge, requiring a new decontamination strategy.
Since COVID-19, infusion centers have doubled down on cleaning frequently touched surfaces and instituting physical distancing measures — and while no one would fault this approach — there is no measurable data that show these protocols have worked to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in their facilities.
COVID-19 is most commonly spread by airborne droplets or aerosols. Aerosols can be spread by a person infected with coronavirus when they talk, breathe, cough, or sneeze, and can remain in the air for up to three hours.
This means that even with patients staggered at safe distances, as the virus drifts through the air, they still risk being exposed.
Can you see now why having an air quality strategy is so important?
But it’s more than that. In order to be truly effective against harmful airborne contaminants and viruses similar to COVID-19, your device must be able to uniformly sterilize the pathogens in the air.
SteriSpace is the only air sterilization technology on the market and the only device that checks all the boxes.
SteriSpace can easily integrate into your infusion center to eliminate 99.9999% of pathogens, viruses, and bacterial spores.
SteriSpace is scalable and can achieve airflow rates varying between 250 to 5000 cubic feet per minute. The compressed air is treated uniformly, so there is no untreated air or leaks.
You can configure SteriSpace to create negative pressure in a room with highly contagious patients to prevent ventilation-associated outbreaks and super-spreading events. Or configure SteriSpace to create positive pressure in a room containing immunocompromised patients to protect them from pathogens in external ambient air.
Let our experts show you the potential that SteriSpace Air Sterilization can bring to your facility. Reach out today and set up a meeting with our specialist to get started.
Proper ventilation in buildings is vital to maintaining good air quality. Click here to find out about the correct ventilation rate in buildings.
The founder of Harvard University’s Health Buildings Program, Joseph Allen, appeared on 60 minutes with Dr. Jonathan LaPook to discuss the importance of indoor air quality. Also covered are some of the technologies currently available that can be used to help prevent the spread the transmission of airborne disease as well as some of the missteps during the pandemic. An innovative patented compressive heating system, SteriSpace, is currently the only technology capable of achieving air sterilization and setting the new standard of care in indoor air quality is a perfect solution for creating healthy buildings.
There are several things you need to understand about COVID in nursing homes. Keep reading to learn more about keeping the indoor air clean.
