Photon Disinfection Technology in the Hospital Environment

Abstract

The study’s purpose was to increase the awareness of photon disinfection methods for environmental disinfection in hospital settings to prevent and control hospital-acquired infections by providing a clean and safe environment for the patients. An integrative literature review was conducted to analyse the photon disinfection methods and their impact on hospital-acquired infection rates. This integrative literature review was completed for the Research, Development, and Innovation Unit in Laurea University of Applied Sciences to assist future research and development projects. Furthermore, this study focused on infection prevention and control’s core competencies and will serve as a relevant context for future students in Learning by Developing Projects in Global Health and Crisis Management studies.

Photon disinfection technology has been known for a long time as an environmental disinfection method. However, due to the golden era of antibiotics, photon disinfection technology was somewhat overlooked. It has recently been reconsidered for disinfecting surfaces in hospital environments due to multiple challenges that the healthcare sectors face worldwide in preventing and controlling the rapid growth of hospital-acquired infections. Hospital-acquired infections increase morbidity and mortality rates worldwide and become a financial, social, and emotional burden to patients and society. Most of the developing countries are severely affected by hospital-acquired infections.

Lack of cleanliness in hospital environments is a significant risk factor for hospital-acquired infections. On top of that, antimicrobial resistance deteriorates the situation. The increased number of hospital-acquired infections led the industrial and medical firms to innovate new healthcare technologies to overcome the issue. Scientists have suggested using light to disinfect the environmental surfaces, called photon disinfection technology. This technology could impact in reducing hospital-acquired infections by inactivating the microorganisms that reside on healthcare environmental surfaces. Unfortunately, this technology has not been utilised adequately in healthcare settings.

The databases used for the data collection were CINAHL, PubMed, ProQuest and ScienceDirect. After the database search from 34 potentially relevant articles, the most 20 relevant articles were selected for the analysis process according to explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria. The quality of the articles was assessed by using STROBE and PRISMA quality assessment tools. Whittemore and Knafl’s (2005) strategies and analysis methods were used to enhance rigour in integrative reviews and appropriately conduct this study.

The study results demonstrated that photon disinfection technologies effectively reduce the bioburden of hospital environments and hospital-acquired infection rates. However, in most studies, photon disinfection technologies were implemented as a supplement to manual terminal cleaning with or without chemicals and produced better outcomes. Therefore, it is recommended to implement photon disinfection technology as a supplement to manual terminal cleaning methods to achieve the anticipated reduction in the bioburden of hospital environmental surfaces and hospital-acquired infection rates.