Zebra Health Care Plastics and Disinfectants
By: POSGuys - 3/20/2020

**How Your Healthcare Mobile Devices’ Plastics Can Help with Disinfection**

![Cleaning TC52][1][400][]

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, our healthcare workers are on the front lines, risking their lives and serious illness to treat patients and deliver patient care at a crucial time.

Their job isn’t just to protect and care for patients but also to protect themselves. It’s the key to avoiding the spread of the virus while being able to safely provide healthcare, so they can continue to support their families.

Ensuring the safety of our frontline healthcare workers starts with following guidelines for washing hands, wearing protective masks and clothing, and avoiding direct contact with the virus and infected patients.  But, it doesn’t end there.  It’s also important that healthcare equipment is properly designed so that it can withstand being sanitized and disinfected to stop the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses and germs.

This is particularly crucial when it comes to healthcare mobile devices and technologies, including mobile computers, barcode scanners, and both desktop and mobile label printers.

While COVID-19 is primarily spread from person-to-person, coronaviruses are known to last up to 5 days on metal surfaces, 4 days on wood, and 2-3 days on plastics and stainless steel. In fact, researchers still don’t know exactly how long COVID-19 specifically lasts on surfaces.

There are reports that traces of COVID-19 were found <a href = "https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-found-on-diamond-princess-surfaces-17-days-later-2020-3" target = "zebra-info" nofollow="true">after 17 days</a> on surfaces aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, long after cabins had been vacated. Fortunately these were only genetic traces, but they point to COVID-19’s potential resilience.

Thankfully, if surfaces are properly disinfected and sanitized, virus infections can be minimized and avoided. Healthcare mobile devices and technologies with specially engineered plastics can help the cause.

![Scanning][2][400][]

For example, our partners at <a href = "/zebra-barcode-printers+34">Zebra Technologies</a> produce an entire portfolio of <a href = "/mobile-computers_6/Zebra-TC52-TC57_2687/TC520K-1HEZU4P-NA_1142438/">mobile computers</a>, <a href ="/barcode-reader-scanner_3/Zebra-DS8178_2553/DS8178-HCBU210MS5W_1141270/">barcode scanners</a>, and <a href = "/barcode-printer_1/Zebra-HC100_931/">printers</a> built with medical-grade plastics and specialized designs that withstand harsh disinfectants and help prevent the spread of germs and viruses.

Its plastics are designed to withstand the frequent cleanings required in hospitals and other healthcare environments, and they can endure a wide selection of disinfectants, including harsh chemicals that will often damage or destroy other devices.

Zebra also produces devices, such as printers and mobile computers, with specialized cases, enclosures, and user interfaces to not only withstand frequent cleanings with harsh disinfectants but also minimize the opportunity for viruses or germs to get into seams, grooves, and other spaces.

In many ways, ensuring device sanitation is the first line of defense for healthcare workers and patients, particularly in today’s hospitals, clinics, and other environments where these devices are increasingly used for better bedside patient care and workflow efficiency.

When your devices are made with medical-grade plastics and you follow proper cleaning and disinfecting guidelines, you can dramatically reduce the risk and spread of infectious diseases and harmful bacteria that may reside on their surfaces.

But there are many myths about cleaning and disinfecting mobile devices, and compliance rates in hospitals and healthcare environments have been shockingly low. That is why it’s absolutely critical to know and apply best practices for cleaning and disinfecting healthcare medical devices.

Zebra’s white paper on this topic, including guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, is a timely resource that we can’t recommend enough. <a href = "https://www.zebra.com/content/dam/zebra_new_ia/en-us/solutions-verticals/vertical-solutions/healthcare/white-paper/cleaning-disinfecting-mobile-devices-hc-en-us-global.pdf" target="zebra-info" nofollow="true">Download it now</a> to learn how to separate myths from reality, take the right steps, and use the right disinfectants for your mobile devices.

Hopefully, this collaborative blog from Zebra and our team at The POS Guys has helped you understand how to disinfect your devices during such a challenging time. To learn more about Zebra healthcare devices and how they help prevent the spread of infection, <a href = "/contact.asp">contact The POSGuys</a> for more advice and information.

*The content of this article was provided by Zebra Technologies on behalf of POSGuys.com.

[1]: https://posguys.blob.core.windows.net/content/images/blog/33/cleaning.jpg
  [2]: https://posguys.blob.core.windows.net/content/images/blog/33/scan.jpg

Zebra Health Care Plastics and Disinfectants By: POSGuys - 3/20/2020

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Zebra Health Care Plastics and Disinfectants
By: POSGuys - 3/20/2020