Hospital Decontamination

The Bioquell Q-10 suite is the first product designed specifically so hospitals can purchase and operate the equipment. Bioquell has partnered with healthcare workers to produce a system incorporating rapid cycles, increased user efficiency and excellent value.

Cleaning is an essential part of infection control, which can be greatly improved upon by the Bioquell system. Taking C. difficile as an example, 25% of surfaces were found to be contaminated after bleach cleaning¹. Bioquell hydrogen peroxide vapour technology effectively eliminates surface environmental contamination (e.g. MRSA, VRE, C. difficile, Acinetobacter) resulting in reduced HCAI risk for subsequent room occupants.

Rooms are completed in approximately 2 hours*, the quickest, proven, room sterilisation technology on the market. The Department of Health's SHP report stated that “83% of NHS workers indicated that the Bioquell process caused no delay to discharges or admissions.”

Use of Bioquell’s technology is a demonstration that the hospital is committed to providing the safest possible patient environment. Bioquell research, together with the data produced by our Quality Assurance Data system, can be used to demonstrate best practice.

Bioquell negates the need for terminal cleaning with bleach and sterilises all available surfaces and equipment in hospital rooms. Issues related to staff exposure to cleaning agents are negated by the use of Bioquell’s system.

No other whole room bio-decontamination system has shown reductions in infection rates. This is unsurprising as published literature clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of Bioquell’s HPV technology^1,2. Bioquell achieves a 6-log spore reduction in approximately 2 hours* – no other system can match this. Further, some other systems have been shown to present Health and Safety risks.

Yes. Published data shows that a 53% reduction in C. difficile was associated with a long term Bioquell deployment¹, and VRE acquisition risk has been shown to be greatly reduced³. In one study C. difficile rates appear to strongly correlate with periods when Bioquell was used most⁴.

Cost-benefit analysis performed after a Bioquell intervention showed that there were 5.8 fewer C. difficile cases in the months where Bioquell was deployed⁵. Using published costs⁶ for C. difficile the projected cost-benefit was over 300% of the investment value.

The DoH SHP investigated the impact of the Bioquell deployment on patient care and found that “94% of patients were not inconvenienced” - in fact 74% of patients were “unaware that the disinfection was taking place.”

Put simply, the presence of a pathogen in any quantity on a surface may represent a risk for transmission, which is reflected by proposed hygiene standards⁷. Further, using
technologies that achieve partial kill allows pathogens with resistance to the chosen method of sterilisation to thrive.

Although there has been recent success nationally and internationally in reducing infection rates, most experts would agree that considerably more can be done to reduce MRSA, C. difficile and other infections. Improvements in hand hygiene have undoubtedly helped to reduce infection rates, but experts now consider a “bundled” approach, including environmental interventions, to be the best strategy in reducing nosocomial infection, perhaps even to zero!

Due to the vaporous nature of the system, the technology is able to achieve some penetration into fabrics and soft furnishings.

Bioquell’s technology has been extensively tested against materials typically found in hospitals, and has demonstrated excellent materials compatibility characteristics. As well as 10 years’ use in the pharmaceutical industry, Bioquell has now been used for over five years in hospitals.