Project
Puerto Rico Children’s Hospital
Industry
Healthcare
Location
Puerto Rico
The Challenge:
Reducing Mobile Device Contamination in the Pediatric Oncology Unit
Puerto Rico Children’s Hospital is committed to protecting its most vulnerable patients through strong infection prevention practices. While implementing electronic documentation in the Pediatric Oncology Unit, staff identified smartphones, tablets, and other personal mobile devices as a potential source of cross-contamination. Frequently moving between clinical and public spaces, these high-touch devices were difficult to disinfect consistently.
As awareness of infection prevention increased following COVID-19, parents of immunocompromised pediatric patients expressed concerns about mobile devices entering patient rooms. The hospital needed a fast, reliable solution that would allow staff, students, clinicians, and visitors to sanitize their devices before entering sensitive care areas – helping reduce contamination risks without disrupting clinical workflows.
The Solution:
Fast, Accessible UV-C Mobile Device Sanitization
To address this challenge, Puerto Rico Children’s Hospital partnered with Seal Shield to install the CleanSlate UV Rapid Sanitizer within the Pediatric Oncology Unit.
Positioned at the entrance to the unit, the CleanSlate system provides healthcare professionals, staff, and visitors with a simple, touch-free method for sanitizing smartphones and other handheld electronic devices in just 20 seconds before entering patient care areas.
The rapid sanitization process made device hygiene easy to incorporate into daily routines without disrupting busy workflows. By providing an accessible and consistent method for disinfecting personal electronics, the hospital strengthened its existing infection prevention protocols while reinforcing a culture of patient safety.
To further validate the effectiveness of the device beyond manufacturer claims, the hospital’s epidemiology team conducted an independent study evaluating bacterial contamination on mobile devices before and after UV sanitization. During the study, staff intentionally contaminated devices through contact with common hospital surfaces, the devices were then cultured before and after treatment with the CleanSlate UV system. The study found significant bacterial contamination (including gram-positive bacteria) prior to sanitization and no detectable bacterial growth following UV sanitization. The dramatic reduction in contamination was so unexpected that the laboratory repeated the testing to verify the results, ultimately confirming the effectiveness of CleanSlate UV as a necessary tool in the hospital’s infection prevention strategy.
The Impact
Streamlined Workflows and Increased Confidence in Device Hygiene
Today, the CleanSlate UV Rapid Sanitizer is fully integrated into daily workflows within the Pediatric Oncology Unit at Children’s Hospital of Puerto Rico. During the initial 60-day pilot period, the system completed 1,442 disinfection cycles averaging 22 sanitization uses per day, and is estimated to have sanitized more than 2,500 mobile phones. Healthcare professionals, patients, families, and visitors routinely sanitize smartphones, tablets, keys, eyeglasses, children’s toys, and other personal items before entering patient care areas, creating a fast, convenient, and consistent layer of infection prevention.
The hospital’s independent study confirmed the system’s effectiveness in eliminating pathogens from mobile devices, reinforcing confidence in UV-C sanitization as part of everyday clinical practice. Strong adoption, demonstrated by thousands of sanitization cycles in a short period, has made CleanSlate part of the unit’s culture and has been especially valued by families of transplant and oncology patients entering isolation rooms.
It's easier to prevent than to have to deal with the real problem. If I'm doing this now and it's ingrained that before you go into a patient room, you clean your device, I'm far less likely to have cross-contamination. Once a patient has an infection, there are real costs and patient lives are at risk
Following the pilot deployment success, physicians began requesting additional CleanSlate units, and the hospital initiated plans to expand deployment into the Emergency Department, Progressive Care Unit (PCU), and other high-risk clinical areas, further strengthening its organization-wide commitment to infection prevention.
