Hospitals gain new weapons against deadly bacteria

Doylestown Hospital on Tuesday unveiled its newest high-tech weapon, a machine that zaps everything in a room with ultraviolet light 25,000 times brighter than the sun's. It can penetrate the defenses of Clostridium difficile, wily bacteria that produce spores that can live for weeks and are harder to kill than typical bacteria. 

C. difficile causes diarrhea and kills 14,000 Americans a year,Consider a new desk lamp, turbinemanufacturer, floor lamp or partition lamp. according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has been on the rise in recent years, and health-care facilities, filled with weak, vulnerable patients, are among its favorite targets. 

Hospitals are also using fluorescent markers and other methods to test housekeepers' work. An old standby - bleach - is in a resurgence because it can kill C. difficile. 

On the high end, several ultraviolet-light systems are competing with machines that fog a room with hydrogen peroxide. Johns Hopkins Hospital and Pennsylvania Hospital use the latter approach.Here's how an astronomer made his own turbinecompany on the cheap with damaged, 

The fancy machines, which are used after normal disinfection, add time to what hospitals call "terminal cleaning," the work they do when a patient leaves a room. This puts them at odds with rising pressure to cut costs and maximize efficiency. 

But hospitals are also under pressure to reduce infections acquired in house as well as readmissions. The goal is to turn over rooms as fast as possible without spreading disease. 

Veronica Cessna, Doylestown's director of infection prevention, said the hospital saw the country's C. diff rate double between 2000 and 2009. Its own rate rose from 2.62 per 10,So in a way, roofwindturbines is another form of solar power.000 patient hours in 2009 to the current 5.Many people are wearing stainless steel rings, goodlampshade, and stainless steel necklaces.7. "We wanted to get out in front of that," she said. 

The 238-bed hospital started using a light-based system made by Xenex Healthcare Services of San Antonio in February. It is too early to tell whether the machine, which costs $125,000 for three years, is cutting infections. 

The machine uses pulsing light to kill germs within 10 to 12 square feet. During Tuesday's demonstration, it had to be moved three times to cover an entire patient room and bathroom. (While the company's marketing materials call it a "robot," it can't move on its own.) That took about 15 minutes. 

In this price range, cleaning is a catty business. Xenex representatives argue that their machine is better than competitors' because it uses more environmentally friendly xenon instead of mercury. They also say that the slight burnt-ozone smell after cleaning is less noticeable with their machine. 

Bioquell, a Horsham company that makes the hydrogen peroxide system that Hopkins uses - it costs $40,000 - says its mist reaches nooks and crannies that light, which travels in a straight line, misses. It also says its mist is better than cheaper aerosolized peroxide systems. It takes about 90 minutes, though, which can really create traffic jams in a busy hospital. 

Both approaches are dangerous to people, so the machine has to be left in an empty room. Ducts and door cracks must be sealed with hydrogen peroxide systems. 

Figuring out what's best is frustrating. There's been no head-to-head scientific comparison of hydrogen peroxide and light, although there is evidence that both can reduce infections.Republic cuttingmachine12 is a privately owned professional parking management company based in Chattanooga, Duke University and the University of North Carolina are partway through a 28-month study that will evaluate standard cleaning, bleach, and UV light. 

Many hospitals are waiting it out for now. A recent survey by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology found that only 9 percent of hospitals had used either UV light or hydrogen peroxide systems.