A healthcare provider disinfects a Zebra clinical smartphone
By Your Edge Blog Team | March 09, 2020

Washing Your Hands is Important, but So is Cleaning the Devices that Your Hands Touch All Day Long

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 specifically disinfect each Zebra scanner, printer and mobile computer model can be found using this tool.

Here 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.

Topics
Energy and Utilities, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Warehouse and Distribution, Transportation and Logistics, Inside Zebra Nation, Retail, Field Operations, Hospitality, Public Sector,
Zebra’s “Your Edge” Blog Team
Zebra’s “Your Edge” Blog Team

The “Your Edge” Blog Team is comprised of content curators and editors from Zebra’s Global PR, Thought Leadership and Advocacy team. Our goal is to connect you with the industry experts best-versed on the issues, trends and solutions that impact your business. We will collectively deliver critical news analysis, exclusive insights on the state of your industry, and guidance on how your organization can leverage a number of different proven technology platforms and strategies to capture your edge.