Portable Medical Equipment (PME) such as IV pumps, workstations on wheels (WOWs), and vitals machines can carry and transfer dangerous pathogens between rooms and patients within healthcare facilities because the equipment is often used and rolled between multiple patient rooms. Recognizing the importance of being able to track and report disinfection, Xenex Disinfection Services has announced TrackMate, a patented device developed by hospitals for hospitals that provides automated tracking of disinfection/cleaning events for PME and hospital rooms. It’s the world’s first automated tracking system and solution for The Joint Commission standard IC 02.02.01 EP1, which focuses on portable medical equipment disinfection.
TrackMate is a small, easy-to-use device that attaches to PME and registers each disinfection\cleaning event (whether liquid chemical cleaning or UV disinfection), stores the data in a secure portal, and provides the data that can be used for compliance and The Joint Commission reporting.
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Peer-reviewed studies demonstrated that twice as many portable medical equipment disinfection events occurred when TrackMate was deployed and 100% of disinfection events were tracked and reported for compliance. TrackMate replaces low tech and often labor-intensive monitoring solutions currently being used in healthcare facilities, such as equipment tags, clipboards and paper checklists, and plastic bags placed over IV poles. It eliminates the need for the manual collection of disinfection event data for Joint Commission compliance reporting.
In addition to tracking disinfection events for PME and rooms, TrackMate can be used anywhere there is a need for tracking disinfection/cleaning, logging of cleaning activity, or automated and remote monitoring of cleaning activity. For example, tracking the cleaning of surfaces in patient rooms, emergency and waiting rooms, nurse stations, kitchens, microbiology laboratories, and mannequins in simulation centers.
“Healthcare workers can’t look at an IV pole and know when it was last disinfected, which is why TrackMate is such a game changer,” says Dr Mark “Tuck” Stibich, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Xenex. “For the first time, disinfection/cleaning event status is being delivered to the user at the point of care. Nurses can quickly look at TrackMate and see when the last disinfection/cleaning event occurred. The CDC has stated that Candida auris is commonly spread via PME – so it’s incredibly important to know when the PME was last cleaned. Infection preventionists and hospital compliance personnel are going to be very excited to learn that we have a solution to IC 02.02.01.”
TrackMate was invented by Dr Chetan Jinadatha, chief of the Infectious Diseases Division at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System and Clinical Professor, School of Medicine, Texas A&M University. Commercialization of TrackMate is supported by the VA Technology Transfer Program, which facilitates the commercialization of VA inventions to benefit Veterans and the American public. Funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Central Texas Veterans Healthcare System supported scientific evaluation of the technology.
The small (2×5-inch) device attaches to PME or can be placed in a room. It senses moisture (wipes) or UV light irradiation, collects all of the disinfection/cleaning events, and keeps a log locally and online. Events are transmitted once a day through cellular signal to an online database. Supervisors can log in and retrieve the TrackMate cleaning log for improving cleaning practices or validating compliance with policy. Battery life on each device is 3 years.
Featured image: TrackMate is a small device that attaches to PME and registers each disinfection\cleaning event, stores the data in a secure portal, and provides the data for compliance and Joint Commission reporting. Photo: Business Wire
