A dog’s best friend
A dog may be man’s best friend but for Angus, an English Springer Spaniel, a robot at VGH may be his — or at least his favourite infection-fighting partner.
While Angus continues his training to detect C. difficile bacteria at VGH, R-D™ — short for Rapid Disinfector™ — is in regular rotation.
Selected as our robot of choice after thorough testing, R-D™ delivers lethal doses of ultraviolet light to destroy viruses, spores and drug-resistant bacteria — even in a room’s shadowed areas.
Three machines on duty
Operated by specially trained Housekeeping staff following standard housekeeping, the three R-Ds™ at VGH complement — not replace — our current housekeeping services. During the day, one R-D™ is devoted to the ICU, while the others disinfect patient rooms:
- Centennial Pavilion – 8:30 am to 3:30 pm
- Jim Pattison Pavilion – 10 am to 5:45 pm
During the evenings as a value add, Housekeeping staff use the R-Ds™ to disinfect the following areas up until 10 pm:
- operating rooms
- endoscopy and bronchoscopy suites
- equipment rooms and staff washrooms
Deadly to pathogens only
R-D™ performs its work quietly, and it’s perfectly safe for us (and Angus) to watch it at work through a window. The UV light isn’t harmful when viewed through glass. And it’s safe to breathe the air if you’re in the vicinity of R-D™ working. The machine doesn’t produce ozone and the slight odour it emits is non-toxic.
Once Angus is fully trained in a few months’ time, our infection-detecting canine will sniff out C. difficile bacteria in unoccupied rooms so we can use R-D™ efficiently.
“Thanks to the everyone’s diligence, we’ve made tremendous progress reducing our CDI rates across Vancouver ,” says Dr. Liz Bryce, regional medical director, infection control. “We want to drive our infection rates down to as close to zero as possible on a consistent basis, and with the help of Angus and R-D™ I’m confident we’ll achieve our goal.”
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