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Source: www.zebra.com, March 2020
THOROUGH DISINFECTION OF MOBILE COMPUTERS, TABLETS, PRINTERS, SCANNERS AND OTHER DEVICES IS CRITICAL TO INFECTION CONTROL IN WORKPLACES AND PUBLIC SPACES. BUT THERE IS A RIGHT AND WRONG WAY TO DO IT.
Given the rapidly evolving situation with the COVID-19 coronavirus, we are receiving a high volume of questions about how our products should be cleaned in order to best protect the front-line workers using them in hospitals, warehouses, stores, routes, and more. These inquiries span across the entire portfolio of mobile computers, scanners and printers that we offer … and come from every industry we service today.
Cleaning devices that are going to be used by multiple workers across shifts is a key requirement that we consider not only when designing our products, but also in providing our customers and partners clear guidance on how they can most effectively clean and disinfect them once they are installed in the field.
The most important thing to consider when looking to deploy a cleaning protocol for your Zebra products is that our guidance on how to clean a device, and what to clean with, is different for each device … there is not a one-size-fits-all approach.
Detailed guidelines on how to disinfect healthcare variants of Zebra scanners, printers, and mobile computers are provided at the in-line links.
For non-healthcare models of Zebra products, look up the User Guide for your exact model on the Support section of our website and turn to the Cleaning Instructions section. For example, the TC57 user guide has detailed information starting on page 212. Simply search the document for “clean.”
In these User Guides, you will find step-by-step instructions on how to thoroughly disinfect the casing, buttons, screen (if applicable) and more. You’ll also be able to confirm which cleaning agents are safe to use, including the purity or formulation levels for each ingredient, as well as the cleaning agents that should never be used. Precautions and best practices for handling the device during cleaning processes will also be detailed, so please read the provided guidance before cleaning your devices. You can always contact our Support team if you have questions.
We also have a whitepaper “Best Practices for Infection Prevention” which was written by Darrel Hicks, a nationally recognized expert in infection control. While this paper was written for the healthcare industry, the recommendations here provide a solid foundation for companies in all industries when taking additional precautions to protect the health of staff and customers.
Zebra recommends that you enact a device cleaning policy for your company as soon as possible using original equipment manufacturer (OEM) guidelines. This will help to ensure that employees are properly disinfecting mobile devices, scanners, printers and more on a routine basis. It will also help to re-assure your employees that you are doing everything you can to prevent shared technology tools from becoming a potential source of virus transmission.
Clean hands + clean devices = an even more effective infection control strategy
We will update this blog post with additional information and guidelines as they become available. Still have questions? Feel free to contact our Support team for more.
