October 24, 2007 - STERIS Corporation said today it has received the first orders for its VaproSure Room Sterilizer from several U.S. hospitals.
Since being introduced in June, systems have been ordered by Wellmont Health System (Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky), Lake Hospital System (Ohio), and the VA Boston Healthcare System (Massachusetts).
As highlighted in recent national news, the persistent spread of germs and infections in healthcare facilities is a significant challenge for patient safety and compromises the ability for hospitals to deliver economically efficient healthcare services. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is estimated that one in every 20 patients in the U.S. contracts an infection while in the hospital, resulting in 99,000 deaths each year with costs to the U.S. healthcare industry estimated at $30 billion per year.
Earlier this month, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published study results indicating that drug-resistant staph MRSA is killing more people in the United States each year than the AIDS virus.
The STERIS VaproSure Room Sterilizer utilizes Vaprox Sterilant to create a dry sterilization vapor that inactivates a full spectrum of biological contaminates on dry, pre-cleaned, exposed, porous and non-porous surfaces within a sealed hospital room. The company says the chemistry is sporicidal, bacteriacidal, fungicidal and virucidal. The technology is reportedly environmentally friendly, reducing to water vapor and oxygen at the conclusion of the cycle.
“We became the first health system in the nation to purchase STERIS VaproSure Room Sterilizers for our hospitals because we believe this technology is a breakthrough advancement for patient safety and infection control,” said Dr. Richard Salluzzo, president and CEO of Wellmont Health System and the founder of the national Safest Hospital Alliance. “As a founding member of the Safest Hospital Alliance, Wellmont is committed to utilizing processes, programs and technologies that bring about real, measurable improvement in patient safety. The VaproSure technology will dramatically enhance our existing infection prevention programs by eliminating biological threats that exist on the many surfaces within a hospital environment.”
Dr. Mark Smith, chairman of emergency medicine at Washington Hospital Center and professor of emergency medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine, said the sterilizer works very well.
“We were so impressed with its ability to sterilize all of the exposed surfaces within a hospital room, that we designed our new Emergency Room expansion with integrated VaproSure Room Sterilizer capabilities,” Dr. Smith said. “As germs become more sophisticated, so does our need for technology to address them”
For more information: www.steris.com