CLEVELAND — MetroHealth System is using a technology to sterilize approximately 50,000 masks for its healthcare staff as a way to combat the shortages of personal protective equipment.
The process takes about two hours to complete. The masks are hung on racks and the room is sealed off as sterilization is completed.
The technology uses concentrated hydrogen peroxide that is aerosolized and kills 99.99999% of all pathogens.
“This will address any potential shortages of these masks and allow us to provide masks to all our employees," said MetroHealth President and CEO Akram Boutros in a news release.
In the past, MetroHealth’s Infection Prevention team has used the technology and have established protocols for sterilizing hospital rooms and ambulances used in the care of highly contagious patients with diseases such as Ebola, anthrax and SARS-CoV-2.
Ohio based-company has also started sterilizing masks in mass quantities. The Battelle Critical Care Decontamination System is capable of decontaminating up to 80,000 respirator masks per system each day.
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