Another Germ Zapping Robot for a Local Hospital
Mercy Medical Center has a new, and third, Xenex LightStrike™ Germ-Zapping™ Robot to use in the fight against COVID-19 thanks to a generous donation from Scott Fitzpatrick, a member of the Board of Directors of the Mercy Development Foundation, and his wife Karen.
“In an effort to support Mercy Medical Center’s patients, doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals, and for the safety of the community, Scott and Karen Fitzpatrick generously donated $103,000 to Mercy Development Foundation for the purchase of the new robot,” said Thomas J. Strauss, interim CEO of Mercy Medical Center. “The new robot will be named ‘Scotty’ in honor of Mr. Fitzpatrick.”
“Scotty” will join “Maddox” and “Mo,” Mercy’s two additional robots that resemble the Star Wars character, R2-D2.
Two years ago, Mercy was the first health care facility in Stark County to use the robots that safely emit germicidal ultraviolet (UVC) rays during the cleaning process. Mercy’s two germ-zapping robots use Full Spectrum™ pulsed xenon ultraviolet (UVC) germicidal light (not mercury bulbs) to penetrate the cell wall of microorganisms, even in shadowed light, quickly destroying bacteria, viruses, fungi, and bacterial spores without chemical residue or fumes.
“Currently, the robots are scheduled day and night to sterilize areas in the hospital including patient rooms and operating rooms and we can use the robot’s UV light to help in the disinfecting process of some hospital PPE,” said Thomas F. Turner, president of Mercy Development Foundation and vice president of Development and Government Relations at Mercy Medical Center.
Out of an abundance of caution, Mercy is disinfecting COVID-19 rooms both before and after the manual cleaning is completed. It only takes 5 minutes for a robot to thoroughly disinfect a room, with housekeepers repositioning it to ensure all areas are reached, floor to ceiling.
