A flexible, easily assembled, negative pressure, transparent plastic envelope that can potentially revolutionize the way health care systems care for infectious diseases will be piloted by Henderson Health Care.
The Isolation System for Treatment and Agile Response for high-risk Infections (ISTARI) is set to arrive at Henderson Community Hospital in October. The modular, disposable, negative pressure, isolation patient care system dives into the idea of eliminating the need for healthcare provider PPE and wraps the PPE around the patient instead. An idea that represents a radical change from conventional strategies that have been in place for more than 40 years.
“This is a rare and unique opportunity to align our facility with some of the lead experts in the fight against COVID-19,” said Henderson Community Hospital Director of Nursing, Carrie Peterson.
Director of International Programs and Innovation at UNMC, Dr. James Lawler, said, “Personal Protective Equipment; gloves, gowns, masks, and goggles can sometimes impair optimal patient care in a variety of ways and we want to make sure that what we are putting out there will actually facilitate better patient care. That’s the number one reason why this testing and evaluation process is so important.”
As a pilot program, Henderson Health Care will assist in evaluating the utility and usability of a prototype model of the system, which will likely be regulated as an FDA medical device. During this phase, actual patients will not participate in the ISTARI evaluation. This half-day evaluation bares no cost to the facility.
There are only three healthcare organizations in Nebraska that were chosen to pilot this new innovative device.
