FORT WORTH COMPANY FOCUSES ON HOSPITAL STERILIZATION

E-Mist Innovations found itself on the front lines fighting the Ebola virus in Dallas and around the world in 2014.

Its electrostatically-charged sprayer gun was used to disinfect the hospital and the apartment where the patient lived.

Since then, the media coverage has led to a boom in sales and the brand has become a household name.

By the end of 2016, the Fort Worth-based company is poised to grow its sales 300 percent compared to 2015. Joshua Robertson, who stepped in as president of E-mist Innovations in June, said those numbers can be attributed to the Ebola outbreak as well as increased awareness of electrostatic technology for disinfecting.

The company is exploring growth in Africa and other third-world countries.

“With limited funding in African countries and other developing nations around the globe, our team is evaluating the best avenues so we can be a part of the solution and minimize infectious outbreaks,” Robertson said.

The company was recently recognized with a Top Innovation of the Year award from InfectionControl.tips, an international organization.

E-mist is also receiving inquiries from other sectors that need sterilization, including the food industry, airlines, hotels, and schools.

For now, the startup wants to remain laser focused on solving problems in the health care sector.

It recently partnered with Next Level 11, a company that developed disinfecting protocol for health-care workers. Together, the two companies will provide comprehensive process for combating infections in hospitals. 

“Next Level 11 is a unique partnership in which we combine our application technology and touch-point healthy process with their technology so together we can provide an end user with a four-step solution to ensure surfaces are safe with trackable data,” Johnson said. 

STAYING POSITIVE IS KEY TO PROCESS

Its patented technology gives the disinfectant solution a positive charge before it leaves the spray nozzle. This electrostatically-charged particle will then be attracted to negative or neutral objects, such as bed rails, door knobs, floors, tables, and other areas that need to be disinfected.

“We can come in and help people clean and disinfect better and more precisely.”
Joshua Robertson

The charged molecules spread out more evenly, even underneath a table. The company builds the battery-powered sprayers and licenses them to users, such as hospitals and other health-care facilities.

“We can come in and help people clean and disinfect better and more precisely,” Robertson said. “It adheres to the surface, it doesn’t run. It allows the chemical to do its job.”

The sprayers can be mounted on wheels or carried around like a backpack.

Robertson said the company is agnostic about the chemicals that are used, its focus is on the electrostatic charging process as the disinfectant is emitted. The same electrostatic technology is used for painting cars and in ink jet printers.

“We just make the chemical better and give it more coverage across the surface,” Robertson said.

Its main focus now is on preventing health care-acquired infections, or diseases and complications people get while they’re already in the hospital. The sometimes fatal infections can be prevented with proper sterilization, Robertson said.

The electrostatic process can sterilize a room in minutes and have it dry and ready for use within 10 minutes, Johnson said. 

“I can cover 100,000 square feet of high-touch points in an hour’s time,” Robertson said. “We’re drastically cutting down on infection rates.”

Prior to E-Mist Innovations, Robertson launched National HME in 2006 where he sold medical equipment to the hospice industry. He sold that business in July and used the proceeds to start GrowCo Capital, which invests in early-stage companies.

E-Mist Innovations got its start at the Tech Fort Worth business incubator and received backing from the Cowtown Angels investors group, which is where Robertson first got involved in the company.

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