Killer robot roaming around VGH!
Posted February 1, 2013 12:19 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – She’s 5’5″ and quiet. But she’s a killer, and she’s on the loose in Vancouver General Hospital!
Meet the hospital’s latest addition to its cleaning and infection control staff: a super-bug zapping robot. It looks like something from Lost in Space: a giant shiny, glass cylinder that radiates bright blue UV light.
Tru-D Smart UVC uses ultraviolet light to kill bugs like norovirus and flu and superbugs like C Difficile.
It’s one of two UV disinfectant machines in a pilot project that will be tested over the next 10 months. The machines cost $75,000 to $100,000.
It takes about an hour to clean a room and Dr. Elizabeth Bryce says it’s perfectly safe, as long as no people are in the room.
“They might get some temporary damage to their eyes, much like a welder might get if they look at an arc of light,” she explains. But there are safeguards.
“We have a monitor set up at the door. If anyone opens the door, the monitor automatically turns off the machine,” says Bryce.
If the tests go well, Tru-D could be on the job permanently within a year and used in addition to regular housekeeping and infection control.
