Thor, the new Xenex germ-zapping robot at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido. Photo: Gina Yarbrough/San Diego County News
SAN DIEGO–Palomar Medical Center has two new additions to its facility-germ-zapping Xenex robots named Thor and Elton.
Palomar Medical Center officials introduced one of the Xenex Robots on Tuesday which coincides with Patient Safety Awareness Week, an initiative of the National Patient Safety Foundation to improve patient safety and incorporate patient safety-related activities at health care organizations in communities across the country. The robots are a first for a hospital in San Diego county to use this new technology.
The $100,000 robot use powerful, pulsing ultraviolet light to disinfect a hospital room, which can contain anti-resistant bacteria. The complete cleaning takes about 15 minutes per room, according to hospital officials.
More than 300 hospitals, long-term acute care, outpatient surgery and skilled nursing facilities use Xenex’s Full-Spectrum high intensity pulsed xenon light technology to destroy deadly superbugs before they harm patients.
