E-Mist’s Technology, used in the control and prevention of the 1.7 million healthcare-acquired infections in U.S. hospitals, receives Top Innovation of the Year Award. E-Mist announced today that InfectionControl.tips (ICT), an internationally recognized Pan-Access collective, has selected the company as a Top Innovation of the Year. ICT is dedicated to infection control and prevention and actively publishes peer-reviewed research articles and perspective pieces focused on the topics of infection control and prevention.
ICT selected E-Mist on the basis of exceptional innovation. The highly sought after awards, which are given out annually, are based on innovation and breakthrough technology.
“We are very proud of our organization and our ability to save lives, improve outcomes, and reduce costs through effective environmental surface disinfection,” stated Joshua Robertson, President of E-Mist. “Those involved in the prevention and control of preventable infections require a balanced approach of cost and quality to improve outcomes. Existing healthcare disinfection methods including wipes, spray and wipe, fogging, misting, and UV lighting are ineffective or expensive. As environmental surface contamination and healthcare-acquired infections have become more defined, the E-Mist electrostatic disinfection application system presents an effective, approved, and cost effective alternative to health care facility disinfection procedures.”
According to George Robertson, Chairman of E-Mist, “Studies have shown that less than 50% of environmental surfaces in patient care rooms are properly cleaned and disinfected. Evidence strongly suggests that cross contamination of microorganisms from environmental surfaces is directly related to patient infections. High-touch surfaces such as bed rails, bed surfaces, tables, fluid poles, doorknobs, and supply carts have all been identified as having the greatest potential for transmission of pathogens. Current cleaning/disinfecting methods and procedures are critical, yet, 100,000 people will die this year directly attributable to HAIs. Housekeeping is allocated insufficient time for cleaning/disinfecting resulting in inadequate chemical disinfection contact time as specified on disinfectant product labels. E-Mist helps healthcare organizations prevent and reduce HAIs. Founded on a legacy of electrostatic science and technology, the E-Mist Infection Control System eliminates traditional disinfectant methods by providing a mobile, touchless, safer, and more cost-effective approach to environmental surface disinfection. E-Mist helps hospitals and other healthcare institutions break the chain of pathogen mobility.”
“Electrostatics has been around and used for decades in the automotive, agriculture, inkjet and photocopier industries,” said Brandi Whitely, Infection Control Specialist of E-Mist. “Electrostatics is easily understood: opposite charges attract and like charges repel. Two positively charged things ( + and + ) will repel each other. Two negatively charged things ( – and – ) will repel each other. Using this natural electrostatic phenomenon, E-Mist developed and patented a breakthrough disinfectant application technology and system. The E-Mist Electrostatic Systems place a positive ( + ) charge on the liquid droplets as they leave the spray nozzle. The dispersed droplets spread out more evenly and seek out a negative ( – ) or neutrally charged surface. The end result is that the disinfectant is more targeted, provides more uniform coverage with less waste, and like a magnet, attracted to a surface with remarkable force.”
Healthcare-Acquired Infections (HAIs) Environmental surface disinfection can impact both HAI and patient perceptions. With more than 700,000 HAI events and nearly 100,000 HAI deaths in the U.S. each year, E-Mist is dedicated to mitigating risk and reducing the number of preventable HAIs that unnecessarily endanger patients.
Key HAI Facts (World Health Organization)
- Health care-associated infections, or infections acquired in health-care settings are the most frequent adverse event in health-care delivery worldwide.
- Hundreds of millions of patients are affected by health care-associated infections worldwide each year, leading to significant mortality and financial losses for health systems.
- Of every 100 hospitalized patients at any given time, 7 in developed and 10 in developing countries will acquire at least one health care-associated infection.
- The endemic burden of health care-associated infection is also significantly higher in low- and middle-income than in high-income countries, in particular in patients admitted to intensive care units and in neonates.
- While urinary tract infection is the most frequent health care-associated infection in high-income countries, surgical site infection is the leading infection in settings with limited resources, affecting up to one-third of operated patients; this is up to nine times higher than in developed countries. In high-income countries, approximately 30% of patients in intensive care units (ICU) are affected by at least one health care-associated infection.
- In low- and middle-income countries the frequency of ICU-acquired infection is at least 2─3 fold higher than in high-income countries; device-associated infection densities are up to 13 times higher than in the USA.
- Newborns are at higher risk of acquiring health care-associated infection in developing countries, with infection rates three to 20 times higher than in high-income countries.
The Impact of Healthcare-Acquired Infections (World Health Organization) As is the case for many other patient safety issues, health care-associated infections create additional suffering and come at a high cost for patients and their families. Infections prolong hospital stays, create long-term disability, increase resistance to antimicrobials, represent a massive additional financial burden for health systems, generate high costs for patients and their family, and cause unnecessary deaths. Such infections annually account for 37,000 attributable deaths in Europe and potentially many more that could be related, and they account for 99,000 deaths in the USA. Annual financial losses due to health care-associated infections are also significant: they are estimated at approximately €7 billion in Europe, including direct costs only and reflecting 16 million extra days of hospital stay, and at about US$ 6.5 billion in the USA.