Hospitals are at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. Not only are they treating patients but they are innovating to keep the virus at bay.
Here are some innovations that Cincinnati hospitals are using to keep people safe:
- Mercy Hospitals and Cincinnati Children’s are using UV light germicidal robots, affectionately called “Germinators” by staff. The robots can clean rooms in five minutes using ultraviolet light.
- UC Health hospitals are filtering the air in COVID units using special technology to reroute infected air through filters.
- St. Elizabeth Hospitals are using a special vacuum cart to remove tiny particulates 1/100 the width of a human hair from every room, floor to ceiling. They’re also using UV to sanitize the masks and other PPE.
- TriHealth Hospitals have installed iPads on wheels in their COVID units so staff can communicate with patients without suiting up.
And there are plenty of unexpected tech enhancements that hospitals have had to ramp up, including increasing internet bandwidth to allow thousands of people to work from home; telehealth infrastructure to provide hundreds of thousands of telehealth visits; and AI bots to communicate among health providers.