The ambulance environment, by virtue of their health activity, is particularly prone to microbial contamination; 27% of the surfaces touched by health personnel (HTS, hand touch sites) are fertile ground for the growth of pathogens [ref. Denmark Study 2018].
The medical environment of ambulances has elements and characteristics favorable to pathogens such as:
Microbial contamination of air and surfaces represents a serious problem for the health of patients and operators inside ambulances. The sanitization procedure currently used is the manual one, which entails the risk of human error and requires prior professional training of the operators, who work in potentially contaminated environments.
The on-site activity of the operators requires disposable PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), generates contaminated waste and requires the ambulances to stop for re-entry, sanitation and restarting. Finally, this procedure does not allow the extrapolation of a publicly available and verifiable history.
The primary objective of ambulance sanitation is to reduce the concentration of pathogens as much as possible and do it in the following way:
The solution provided by Sanicube saw the installation inside the ambulances of the Sanicube Q20 module which, integrated with the on-board systems, performed sanitization through hydrogen peroxide nebulization of surgical medical devices. The nebulized solution saturates the environment and begins its biocidal activity against air and HTS surfaces.
Compared to manual solutions, the automatic Sanicube procedure does not require the physical presence of operators inside the passenger compartment during the activity, eliminating the need for professional training, the risk of error, the use of PPE and the production of contaminated waste. . The procedure can be activated anywhere, without requiring machine downtime and suspension of the service, and provides for the archiving of publicly available and verifiable certificates on the cloud.
The application of the automatic Sanicube procedure in the ambulance environment has brought multiple advantages and achieved the set objectives.
The Sanicube solution is SAFE for operators, which does not expose to the risk of contagion in the act of sanitation, and, as it is automatic, it does not lend itself to human error. By saturating the environment with the biocide product, all surfaces, even the less accessible ones, come into contact with the nebulization and therefore sanitized.
It is a FAST procedure, the automatic nebulization saturates the environment in a short time and can be performed between one transport and the next without returning the ambulances to the depot.
Sanitization is ECONOMIC, the quantity of liquid used is exactly what is necessary; PPE for operators must not be purchased and subsequently disposed of.
Sanicube’s activity is CERTIFIED: the procedure verifies the operator, environment, liquid and machine in a unique and traceable manner. Each sanitation is analyzed, recorded and the outcome can be consulted and verified.