WESTWOOD, N.J. – A maker of washable computer keyboards is urging healthcare and infectious-disease professionals to investigate the risk of harmful pathogens that take up residence at the workstation and are then transferred to patients. Teaming with Liberty Health Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center (Secaucus, N.J.), Unotron (www.unotron.com) is developing protocols that assist critical-care facilities in assessing the level of keyboard contamination in their labs and offices.

Citing a study published in a recent issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine (July 6, 2004), Marc Cisneros, Unotron’s chief operating officer, notes that “doctors, surgeons and anesthesiologists fail to wash their hands with alarming frequency. Doctors in emergency rooms only washed their hands 50 percent of the time, and surgeons were even worse, failing to wash 64 percent of the time. These same medical professionals are undoubtedly using computer keyboards throughout the hospital.”

Cisneros is hopeful that hospitals choosing to conduct a germ audit of their computer workstation areas will turn to Unotron for its SpillSeal technology, which protects keyboards against the spread of infection. In addition to the infection-control technology, the keyboard features individually sealed keys that cannot be damaged by liquid cleaners and disinfectants used on standard keyboards.

“If you try to wash a standard keyboard with disinfectants and cleansers, it probably will never perform properly again,” Cisneros claims. “Hospitals now recognize the importance of disinfecting keyboards, and with the focus on patient safety, there is growing support for awarding bonuses to hospitals that eliminate infection.”