Every day, 93,000 people enter U.S. hospitals to get better. And each day, approximately 4,600 patients acquire an infection while being hospitalized.

In an effort to reduce the growing number of deadly healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in the United States, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now estimates at more than 1.7 million annually, Medline Industries, Inc., announced an exclusive partnership with Infection Prevention Technologies, LLC (IPT) to market a mobile UV-C (high intensity ultraviolet light) room disinfection system that has been shown to dramatically reduce pathogens found on surfaces within healthcare settings.

In the agreement, Medline will act as the exclusive distributor and marketer of IPT’s mobile UV-C room disinfection device called IRiS, the Intelligent Room Sterilization™ system with the Steri-TrakTM service documentation system. IRiS applies an automatically determined UV-C dose to selected rooms to aid in the destruction of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). The CDC cites antibiotic resistant bacteria as a “public health problem of increasing magnitude,” with the national annual cost of HAIs ranging from $35.7 billion to $45 billion.

“The environment is increasingly being found to be a key risk factor for transmitting hard-to-kill organisms to workers and patients,” said Marc Lessem, vice president of Medline’s Ready Care division. “IRiS UV disinfection systems are an innovative and highly effective way to destroy dangerous germs found on surfaces in the healthcare setting, including Clostridium difficile.”

The device’s Steri-TrakTM service documentation system captures key information, including verifying which rooms have been treated, when and by whom. The data is uploaded to a web-based server to document the UV-C treatment of the room, which helps facility supervisors more effectively manage their disinfecting programs.

IRiS is easy to operate and generally takes less than 15 minutes to treat a typical patient room, compared to an average of 30-50 minutes for standard cleaning procedures. Although incredibly high-tech, the device requires only the power from a typical electrical outlet. The rapid treatment times with single placement is achieved with proprietary power-boost technology and energy management system.

A recent study of 30 patient rooms at Florida Hospital Tampa showed a 99 percent reduction in the bacteria in the rooms after they were treated with IRiS. “The device virtually eliminated any organism that could potentially cause disease in the next patient that would go in that room,” said Jackie Whitaker, RN, MS, CIC, director of infection control at Florida Hospital Tampa. “In addition to the impact on patient and worker safety, each infection can cost an additional $25,000 - $40,000.”

IRiS, which resembles a large, high-tech bug zapper, is a mobile device that stands about five feet tall and two feet in diameter. It produces the highest intensity UV-C field available in a mobile platform. When not in use, emitters are covered by an automated shutter system to protect the emitters and reflectors during transportation and storage. It operates with a hand-held remote providing bar code room addressing for accuracy and wireless 3G communication for real-time updates. Room treatment information is available for authorized users on any web-enabled PC as part of the Steri-TrakTM service documentation system. For added safety, the system employs multiple motion detection systems to prevent persons from accidental or intentional UV exposure.