Violet, Our Germ-Zapping Robot Combatting COVID-19
At the time Beaufort Memorial invested in its germ-zapping robot, it might have looked like something from a science-fiction film. Recently, the technology has proven to be a powerful weapon against the latest viral villain — COVID-19.
Testing performed in April at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute has proven that the Xenex LightStrike™ disinfection robots, like the one at Beaufort Memorial nicknamed "Violet," are 99.9% effective in eradicating the COVID-19 virus in a matter of minutes.* The technology uses high-intensity pulses of ultraviolet (hence the robot's nickname) light to provide full spectrum disinfection.
"We are the only hospital in the Lowcountry with one of these germ-zapping robots," says Ashley Hildreth, RN, Patient Safety Officer at Beaufort Memorial Hospital. "Violet is a powerful tool that our custodial staff has been using since 2016 as part of our stringent cleaning and infection prevention protocols."
To help in the fight against COVID-19, our team is using Violet to disinfect:
- Patient rooms upon discharge of COVID-19 patients and those who were awaiting COVID-19 test results.
- Emergency Department rooms after the treatment of patients with respiratory concerns.
As a precaution, the team also continues to treat each operating room between surgeries.
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How Robotic Disinfection Works
After a room undergoes a normal cleaning and been wiped down with disinfectant, a trained environmental services technician wheels in the robot and sets it up to zap any germs left behind on all of the surfaces, fixtures and furniture.
Violet scans the room to make sure no one is present and then raises to her full height of 5-foot 2-inches and begins flashing intense ultraviolet rays, hundreds of times more intense than sunlight. This incredibly intense light destroys microorganisms, viruses and pathogens on all surfaces, and is so intense that it even works in shadowed areas.
Violet takes about 5-10 minutes to complete her piece of the disinfection process.
* Xenex validated the efficacy of the Xenex LightStrike™ disinfection robot against live (not surrogate) SARS-CoV-2 in the biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) containment laboratory at Texas Biomedical Research Institute. The results showed a 99.99% reduction in pathogen load in 2 minutes at 1 meter for hard surfaces and 5 minutes for N95 respirator masks.
