HEALTHCARE & HOSPITAL FACILITIES


be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This may result in vandalism, while washrooms have also been used to conceal drug paraphernalia.


The people responsible for designing and equipping A&E washrooms take care to address these risks. For example, washroom dispensers need to be tough and durable to withstand vandalism, and completely enclosed to provide no hiding place for needles or other drug-taking equipment.


Dispensers are required to be easy to clean and designed to reduce the risk of cross contamination; they should be tightly sealed to protect the product inside before use.


Bulk-fill soaps were once a popular choice in institutional washrooms due to their low cost. However, it has become increasingly understood that these lay the user open to infections because the soap is decanted into dispensers from large, open containers. Soaps supplied in cartridges that are tightly sealed before use – such as Tork Foam and Liquid Soaps, for example - provide a much more hygienic alternative.


It is generally accepted that clean paper towels are the best hand- drying option in hygiene-critical healthcare environments. Not only do they avoid the cross-contamination risks of a textile towel, they also dry the hands much more rapidly than an air dryer.


Queues often form in busy washrooms where even the fastest of hand-dryers are installed, and this could result in some A&E patients failing to dry their hands at all. Hand drying is vital in any hygiene-sensitive environment since damp hands can transmit up to 1,000 times as much bacteria as dry hands. The high noise levels generated by air dryers can also be an aggravator. And there are other reasons why healthcare trusts generally recommend paper towels over air dryers.


A study carried out in 2014 by EL Best, P Parnell and MH Wilcox, compared three hand drying methods: jet air dryer, warm air unit and paper towels. The hands of 120 test subjects were coated


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with lactobacilli to simulate poorly- washed hands and then dried using one of the three methods.


The study revealed that air bacterial counts were between four and five times higher after using the jet air dryer, compared with the warm air dryer and 27 times higher compared with use of paper towels. The authors concluded that air dryers may be unsuitable for healthcare since they could facilitate microbial cross-contamination via airborne dissemination to the environment or washroom visitors.


“DAMP HANDS CAN TRANSMIT


UP TO 1,000 TIMES


AS MUCH BACTERIA AS DRY HANDS.”


A high-capacity hand towel roll will provide a hygienic drying solution while ensuring that the product is unlikely to run out during busy periods. The Tork Matic® Hand Towel Roll dispenser, for example, holds sufficient towels for up to 1,400 hand dries and gives out only one towel at a time. This means each user only touches the towel they take, while one-at-a-time dispensing helps to reduce consumption – a major benefit in the cash-strapped healthcare sector.


A good toilet paper system can also improve hygiene in the A&E washroom. Conventional toilet rolls present a cross-contamination risk because they are handled by everyone. As a result, jumbo rolls are often supplied instead – particularly in a washroom where traffic is heavy.


Jumbo rolls have the benefit of providing a long-lasting solution while protecting the paper inside from contamination before use. But the design of some dispensers leads to the end of the paper becoming “lost” inside the unit. This forces the next user to place their hand inside the dispenser to find it, potentially repeating the actions of a previous washroom visitor. Again, the risk of cross- contamination is huge.


Toilet paper systems that ensure that each washroom visitor touches only the paper they use should therefore be supplied. Tork SmartOne® is particularly suitable for A&E washrooms since the paper is pulled out from the front of the unit, avoiding the need for any fumbling around inside the dispenser.


Tork SmartOne is also sufficiently robust to withstand vandalism and has been designed to incorporate no fissures, crevices or flat surfaces where needles or medication could be stored – a perennial risk in the vulnerable hospital environment. Like Tork Matic, Tork SmartOne is designed to naturally control consumption, which is a major advantage in any NHS facility where budgets are tight.


The pressure on A&E puts hospital emergency staff under mounting levels of stress and the higher the number of patients to be seen, the more challenging it becomes for healthcare workers to maintain appropriate levels of hand hygiene.


Staff wash stations should therefore provide fast and efficient hand hygiene facilities while also being user friendly, so that good hand hygiene becomes easy.


The washrooms of A&E units can be challenging to equip and maintain. Visitor numbers fluctuate enormously from one hour to the next and supplies of toilet tissue and hand towels may dwindle fast – particularly where patients are vomiting, suffering from stomach bugs or using the paper to staunch their wounds.


A&E by its nature is filled with frazzled, distressed patients who are at high risk of picking up each other’s germs, either because they have open wounds or because their immune system is compromised. And it is staffed by busy people who are constantly moving from one crisis to the next.


Therefore, it is vital that A&E washrooms and staff wash stations – both areas of high risk to the health – are clean, hygienic and safe while making hand hygiene as easy and painless as possible.


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