Called the IsoBooth, the testing station would eliminate healthcare workers having to dispose of PPE after every test is administered, saving millions of dollars and reducing environmental waste.
“The IsoBooth is intended to give healthcare providers a safe and comfortable place to administer tests while significantly reducing the amount of PPE consumed by traditional testing methods,” said Imagine Fiberglass president Jim Ashton. “Ontario alone intends to ramp up testing to 16,000 per day. Implementation of the IsoBooth would eliminate the use of almost two million disposable gloves and one million masks in two months.”
The IsoBooth is based on a design by Harvard Medical School researchers that allows a clinician to stand inside, apart from the patient, and administer a swab test from gloved external hand ports. A shelf, or customized tray on the front of the booth, holds test kits, supplies and a canister of sanitizing wipes to be used to clean the gloves and the shield between patients.
In addition to the potential cost savings that would be generated by the IsoBooth, it also reduces the amount of environmental waste that would otherwise be generated by PPE disposal.
Approximately 3,900kg of hazardous PPE waste is created every day in hospitals and healthcare facilities across Canada. The IsoBooth would eliminate this waste entirely, reducing the burden on our waste treatment facilities, as well as our overall environmental footprint.
