Local hospital steps up its cleaning efforts on top of safety measures already in place
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IDAHO FALLS — One local hospital is boosting its efforts to keep a clean environment so the public feels safe when they walk through its front doors.
On top of what Idaho Falls Community Hospital already does to protect patients from COVID-19, such as taking everyone’s temperature who enters the building and reducing the number of visitors, they started something new in early June. They now use electrostatic sprayers and a powerful hydrogen peroxide-based dry fog to help fight the virus.
The dry hydrogen peroxide-based fog is used to clean rooms. It settles evenly in the room and allows all of the surfaces and objects to be disinfected, an IFCH news release explains.
After the fog clears, electrostatic sprayers are used to apply an anti-microbial disinfectant. The sprayers work by electrically charging a liquid disinfectant and dispersing it as a mist. With the positive charge, the disinfectant naturally clings to any surface it is sprayed on, including counters, walls, ceilings, medical equipment and furniture.
“Electrostatic spraying and fogging are safe and highly effective ways for our team to disinfect our hospital from top to bottom, in addition to the processes we already have in place,” Casey Jackman, the Chief Operations Officer at Idaho Falls Community Hospital said in a news release. “We can quickly clean areas where our team members and patients touch and know every surface was cleaned equally and will stay resistant to viruses. This is an important step in protecting our patients and our employees.”
The hospital works with Axion, a local cleaning company, to disinfect waiting rooms, the emergency department lobby and patient rooms with the electrostatic sprayers.
Axion uses an anti-microbial cleaner that has been approved by the EPA as an effective cleaner against the COVID-19 virus, the news release explains. It goes onto say that when it’s applied with the electrostatic sprayer, the disinfectant is able to kill viruses on surfaces for 60 to 90 days.
Idaho Falls Community Hospital is spraying high traffic areas, such as waiting rooms, every 30 days. Patient rooms are sprayed every time a COVID-19 positive patient is discharged.
Jackman said they take their patients’ health seriously and a huge part of that means keeping them safe while they’re in the hospital’s care.
“I am proud of our team and the extra efforts they are putting in to find new, innovative ways to disinfect the hospital,” Jackman said in a news release. “They are raising our already high standards to give our patients more peace of mind.”
For more information on what safety measures the hospital is taking during COVID-19, click here.