teaser
A new tool in the armoury for infection prevention and control professionals has been launched at IPS 2012 – the Bioquell ICE-pod.
The new Bioquell ICE-pod is a revolutionary temporary enclosure, developed to help healthcare workers control outbreaks and manage patients who are known/suspected to be infected or colonised with nosocomial pathogens. Tailored to an individual bed space, each unit maximises the patient care area whilst taking into account gantries, trunking and other ward-specific services.
The Bioquell ICE-pod can be erected rapidly and, by providing additional single occupancy areas, helps to increase the flexibility of the hospital. It comprises walls, a roof, bi-folding doors and an air handling unit with integral HEPA filtration helping to ensure that pathogen-contaminated air is not spread around the hospital.
The design, materials and lighting of the Bioquell ICE-pod have been specified to give a modern look whilst creating a pleasant environment for patients. Each enclosure has large, transparent windows to offer visibility for staff and patients, with opaque lower level panels to reinforce the sense of a private patient room. To enable full privacy, the Bioquell ICE-pod also incorporates rails specified to fit standard hospital curtains. Alcohol hand rub, gloves and gowning materials are mounted on the front fascia to help to facilitate good hand hygiene and infection control practices. The Bioquell ICE -pod combines many of the benefits of a private room while retaining the primary advantages of bays/open wards.
Each enclosure can also be sealed for decontamination using Bioquell hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) technology, which has been shown to eliminate pathogens from patient care areas. This allows the hospital to realise the proven benefits of HPV decontamination in terms of a reduction in ongoing infection transmission and lower treatment costs per patient.
Commenting on this new product launch, James Salkeld head of healthcare at Bioquell said, “The Bioquell ICE-pod concept has been exceptionally well received during our early development and testing. When combined with our leading bug-killing HPV technology, we hope the whole system can help infection control teams combat nosocomial pathogens.”
