Cetrix Blog

While using tablets and smartphones makes hospitals more efficient, but the risks of spreading infections makes Tablet UV Disinfection inevitable. Health care providers are increasingly using tablets and smartphones especially in the hospital setting

The use of Smartphones and Tablets in Hospitals

Statistics shows that more than 67% of doctors and nurses are using smartphones or tablet computers at US hospitals and this figure is increasing. The ability to gather and access information with the touch of a fingertip, and carry it around the hospital is invaluable. Therefore, many of hospitals have embraced tablets and leveraging the innovative technologies. Reportedly, 73% of hospitals that use tablets or smartphones to collect information from patients are more efficient. Clinicians say that smartphones and tablets enhance their ability to communicate with others and that the devices are providing them with a positive work experience.

Healthcare organizations of all sizes benefit from the ability to access patient information through a smartphone or tablet and more healthcare facilities are using mobile devices, according to a recent HIMSS Analytics survey. This, broadly brings about the requirement of a health care program as tablet UV disinfection in hospitals and public facilities.

Disinfection in Hospitals

The reaction of hospitals and health systems to the rapidly increasing use of mobile devices by healthcare professionals have been cautious. Why? Smartphones and tablets are contaminated with bacteria.

According to one study, more than 90% of smartphones used by hospital staff members are contaminated with bacteria. A study found that 50% of smartphones and tablets had one species of bacteria, 40% had two, and 3% had three species. This can be very dangerous because even the mildest of these bacteria can cause abdominal and blood infection in patients with already compromised immune systems. This is a fact that smartphones and tablets can carry ten times more bacteria than the average toilet seats, according to microbiologists at the University of Arizona, and 18 times more bacteria than a flush handle on a public toilet.

While mobile devices have changed the way hospitals operate by frequently being shared between doctors and nurses to access laboratory results and coordinate patient care, at the same time this practice could be putting the health of patients at risk.

Infections caught in hospitals, nursing homes and doctors’ offices represent a major problem that, according to The Wall Street Journal, affects more than a million people annually, and which the Center for Disease Control and Prevention links to nearly 100,000 deaths each year.

Therefore, it is not a question that how smartphones and tablets are spreading diseases and infections and some doctors describe this as an army of pocket-sized Trojan horses traveling in and out of the hospital and between rooms, spreading germs and bacteria along the way.

But the main problem is that while there are stringent protocols for sterilizing hospital equipment, clothing and staff hand washing, in the absence of specific tablet disinfection guidelines many hospitals don’t have a certain protocol to control disinfection of tablets and smartphones and a study shows only less than 20% medical professionals are concerned about this.

Solution : Smartphone Tablet UV Disinfection

While applying liquids to disinfect tablets and smartphones may lead to losing the manufacturer’s warranty and causing damage to these devices, ultraviolet light disinfection system is a proven technology to disinfect water, surfaces, air and now smartphones and Tablet UV Disinfection.

ChargeMax is a new technology mobile device sanitizer designed to disinfect smartphones and tablet computers by ultraviolet light.

Learn more on ChargeMax Smartphones and Tablets UV disinfection technology