DES MOINES, Iowa — Things are looking more futuristic at MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center, and it's all thanks to a germ-zapping robot named WALL-E.
WALL-E, named after the Disney Pixar movie, uses ultraviolet lights to clean hospital rooms after a COVID-19 patient leaves.
"The wave lengths of light are able to penetrate through the substance of microbial organisms and, basically, destroy their DNA," said Ravi Vemuri, the medical director of infection prevention at MercyOne.
Staff at the hospital told Local 5 that it's humanly impossible to clean every inch of their hospital rooms. That's where WALL-E comes in.
"By deploying this ultraviolet light, for specified periods of time, you can end up destroying any living organism," Vemuri explained.
Staff are required to stay out of the room while WALL-E cleans up after a patient's stay.
"If the robot was on and we opened this door with this sign right here it would stop the robot from working correctly," said Rich Angus, the amanger for environmental services at the hospital. "And then the robot would shut down so you could enter safely."
WALL-E stepped up during the pandemic, especially as the entire nation experienced a shortage on personal protective equipment (PPE).
Thanks to the tech that helped create WALL-E, staff at MercyOne feel reassured that the environment that they work in is safe for themselves and their patients.
Don't worry if you think WALL-E is all alone. MercyOne has another robot just like him named Rosy.
As if that's not cute enough, Rosy is named after the robot from "The Jetsons."
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