Background
An acute care hospital in Massachusetts wanted to test the effectiveness of the VidaShield technology in a couple of areas in their hospital—the employee break room in the OR and the surrounding areas of the ICU, to see if it would reduce the biological burden in the air. Ultimately, they wanted to see if reducing the number of microbes in the air would affect the amount that settled on surfaces.
Method
Twenty-one VS03 VidaShield units were installed in ICU hallways and ICU patient rooms. The no downlight versions were selected because the patient rooms
had standard lighting already in place. The ICU was an ideal location for environmental testing on the air because of the controlled access to and the heavy
traffic flow inside the area. One unit was placed in each patient room and throughout the hallways.
In addition, six VidaShield units were installed in an employee break room located inside a very busy operating suite. Pre-testing revealed that the break room
was very contaminated from staff moving in and out constantly throughout the day.
An SAS 180 sampler with blood agar and Rodac plates was used to take pre- and post-installation samples measuring total bacteria counts for both air and surfaces.
An independent lab analyzed the samples.
Results
The results of both the air and the surface bacteria tests were as follows: airborne bacteria levels in the ICU were reduced 69%, and surface bacteria levels in the ICU were reduced 51%. The break room results were similar—the airborne bacteria levels were reduced 70%, and the surface bacteria levels were reduced 48%.
Conclusions
Environmental testing showed that VidaShield reduced the levels of bacteria in both the air and on the surfaces in heavily contaminated areas, like an OR break room or an ICU, by 69-70%.
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