ABSTRACT
Introduction: The dramatic spread of COVID-19 has disrupted lives, communities and businesses worldwide. A new autonomous robot, equipped with UVC light to perform fast and reliable disinfections while it is on movement, has been developed to contribute to the reduction of the impact on public health. Objectives: In this work, we have scientifically evaluated the ability of this robot to disinfect hospital rooms. Methods: We selected empty rooms just after patient discharge and before terminal cleaning. We took 94 microbiological samples of highly touched surfaces inside the hospital patient's rooms using Rodac plates, before introducing the robot in the room. After the robot operation, samples were taken in the same places. The plates were incubated and read after 5 days. We performed descriptive statistics, and non-parametric Wilcoxon test for repeated measures, using IBM SPSS and OPENEPI. Results are presented in colony-forming units per plate (cfu/p) per plate. Patients are considered to be at risk when the bacterial count on hospital surfaces exceeds 120 FCU/plate (5 fcu/cm2). Results: The initial situation was that in 4% of the locations there was a risk for the patients (more than 120 cfu per plaque). After applying this robot there were no locations with risk for the patients. The table shows that the mean colony reduction is 81.96% and the median experiments a reduction of 94.8%. In any case, both levels mean and median are below the threshold for disinfection that is 10 fcu/plate. The Wilcoxon test for related samples indicates that the differences are statistically significant (P < 0.0001). The normal procedure is to clean the room using a Chloramine-based disinfectant after the UVC, so the cumulated effect will be even higher. Conclusion: The use of this robot allowed to reduce the colony-forming units below the risk threshold. Therefore it is a valid technique for terminal disinfection of hospital rooms. (Figure Presented).