HEALTHCARE & HOSPITAL FACILITIES TAPPING INTO BETTER HYGIENE
By installing equipment that automatically defends itself against sources of external contamination (from touching or sneezing), healthcare and hospital settings could go on to see direct improvements in the levels of staff absences due to sickness, explains Sarah Hussey, Business Development Executive at BRITA VIVREAU.
Protecting the wellbeing of everyone using healthcare and hospital facilities is a value at the core of managers working in the sector – after all, safeguarding health is the very purpose of these buildings.
With ongoing Covid-19 infections now competing alongside other viruses and bacteria that are endemic in the community, staff absence levels due to sickness continue to soar. This can have a direct effect on the consistency and quality of care workers are able provide, with many teams already facing mass staff shortages, and individuals still experiencing ongoing trauma following their hard work on the frontline during stressful periods of lockdown.
Comprehensive hygiene and cleaning schedules are of course an essential part of daily life in healthcare and hospital settings, most of which are 24/7 operations, yet there are still some high traffic areas that can become breeding grounds for bacteria. This is despite many care settings ramping up their cleaning operations in light of the heightened awareness of surface hygiene following the pandemic.
For example, hot and cold drinks facilities – such as water dispensers in waiting rooms and tea stations in staff rooms – can often see hundreds of people using them between scheduled cleans as they are situated in heavy footfall areas and are, of course, where people eat and drink. As they are self-service, there is no guarantee that the users will be following official guidelines for hand hygiene before touching them.
There are, however, hot and cold water dispensers available to the sector that have been designed with hygienic
principles in mind, automatically disinfecting themselves thermally at regular intervals without the need for chemical additives or manual intervention. Such technology would add an invaluable protective barrier from external, surface- level bacterial contamination throughout a healthcare or hospital building at key touchpoints.
BRITA VIVREAU’s Top water dispenser, for example, is a self-service, customisable solution ideal for waiting rooms, hallways, and reception areas, while BRITA’s Extra C-shape can flex to suit spaces such as staff rooms and hospital cafeterias.
Both dispenser models keep their users safe with a powerful thermal disinfection feature:
BRITA ThermalGate. This protects the dispenser against contamination from external sources, like physical contact (such as touching the tap) and droplets from users sneezing or coughing.
The feature remains on duty even during quieter times, such as overnight or on weekends, so will lessen the burden on manual cleaning rotas across hospital and healthcare environments.
ThermalGate comes as standard on both dispensers, but facilities managers have the option to add BRITA’s HygienePlus solution to the Top system, which offers a three-zone protection system including a pre-filter stage, activated carbon, and hollow membrane technologies, which effectively reduce heavy metals and chlorine as well as 99.99% of all bacteria. Such technology not only makes the water cleaner and clearer, but also offers great- tasting hydration.
By utilising such state-of-the-art hygiene technology, facilities managers will be able to target a major source of external bacterial contamination within their buildings, while reducing the pressure on already stretched cleaning teams.
This means staff, patients, residents, and visitors can all stay properly hydrated throughout their time in a healthcare and hospital setting without risking becoming unwell purely by using facilities to make a drink. This, in turn, could lead to an improvement in the levels of worker absence overall, and help battle the ongoing crisis experienced across the sector to maintain properly staffed wards and units.
Both the BRITA Extra C-Shape and Top water dispensers are industry standard approved by WRAS and KIWA.
www.brita.co.uk/water-dispensers/industries/hospitals- healthcare
48 | TOMORROW’S FM
https://www.brita.co.uk/water-dispensers/industries/hospitals-healthcare twitter.com/TomorrowsFM
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