El Paso Children’s Hospital gets high-tech sterilization machine in battle vs. virus

EL PASO, Texas -- The El Paso Children's Hospital is one of 10 children's hospitals in the nation to receive a high-level sterilization machine meant to protect against the coronavirus.

"So this piece of UV equipment allows us to have an extra level of disinfection," said Kristine Tejeda, education manager at El Paso Children's Hospital. "We actually named him 'Optimus Prime' because the kids get really excited when we roll him into the room."

Thanks to a $25,000 dollar donation from the AT&T Foundation, the El Paso Children's Hospital Foundation was able to purchase the machine to disinfect rooms.

"The UV light turns on and we leave it on for about 10 minutes," Tejada said. "It does a whole 360 degree disinfection of the area and it kills 99.9 percent of the virus or pathogens in the room."

As a safety precaution, the UVDI machine is programmed to shut off the second the door to a patient's room is opened and someone walks in.

"It's actually a very strong piece of equipment so we close the doors and it counts down before people walk in," Tejeda said.

The machine helps staff cut down their cleaning time while still assuring rooms are safely disinfected.

"Before we would leave the room and make sure we clean everything and we would try to leave rooms open for sometimes 35 minutes to let things circulate," Tejada said.

But most importantly, the new equipment offers peace of mind to families and patients at El Paso Children's Hospital.

"We want parents to trust us with their children so we want top of the line equipment," Tejada said.

The El Paso Children's Hospital Foundation is hoping to purchase more equipment to sterilize rooms.

Click Here if you would like to donate to the foundation.