INFECTION CONTROL
acute treatment and emergency hospital, the hospital provides around 20,000 inpatient, and some 220,000 outpatient, appointments each year. Following the principle of ‘Consistent hospital hygiene means patient safety’, one of the hospital’s most important aims is to prevent hospital-acquired infections by consistently managing hospital hygiene. In line with this strategy, the hospital has recently renovated 10 of its operating theatres, in the process replacing the existing wall tiles with TroBloc M wall sheets. Around 750 m2
of wall surface
A renovated operating theatre at the Bundeswehr-Zentralkrankenhaus in Koblenz featuring a new wallcovering.
Easy of cleaning
As previously mentioned, professional cleaning of large surfaces can be both time-consuming and expensive – leading us to consider how we might best assist staff charged with responsibility for this repetitive task. The surface of our wall sheet is highly hydrophobic, due to a very low surface tension. This ensures that the contact area for particles and liquids is greatly reduced, which in turn means that surfaces can be cleaned more quickly and easily.
Alongside being easy to clean, large surfaces in healthcare facilities need to be both chemical and scratch-resistant. They also need to be capable of withstanding regular long-term contact with disinfectants and cleaning agents.
Flame retardancy
Walls also need to have a defined behaviour in the event of fire to provide the optimal protection for both staff and patients. Fire protection requirements may vary depending on the area of application. One of the key standards that our wall
sheets comply with is BS 476 Part 7:1997, Method for Classification of the Surface Spread of Flame Of Products.
Areas of application
Röchling Industrial wall sheets are suitable for wall claddings, ceilings, doors, and other large surfaces in medical environments, including treatment rooms, operating theatres, ICUs, isolation rooms, and hospital corridors. In recent years, our wall sheet has been installed in a number of healthcare facilities of different types worldwide.
Case study –
Military hospital in Koblenz The central military hospital (Bundeswehr-Zentralkrankenhaus) in Koblenz is the largest hospital of the Bundeswehr (the armed forces and their civil administration and procurement arm) in Germany. Also the academic teaching hospital of the University of Mainz, the hospital offers an exceptionally high level of medical care, focusing on acute treatment of emergency patients. As an
was covered. Hospital personnel subjected the wall sheet to extensive testing with different cleaning agents and disinfectants, and simulated different types of soiling before specifying the TroBloc M product. They were also impressed with the wall sheets’ ease of cleaning, chemical and scratch resistance, and durability.
Conclusion
Healthcare facilities must constantly improve hygiene measures, but equally need to specify cost-effectively, and ensure that investment decisions are well thought-out and justified. While compared with personal contact between patients, medical staff, and medical instruments, walls and doors may not be to the fore when staff discuss infection control protocols, these large surfaces provide microbes with the perfect environment for colonisation. By selecting wall sheets with inbuilt properties that prevent microbial growth and spread, they can go a long way towards minimising the risk of infection in clinical settings.
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Alan Gibson
To increase patient safety, the tiled walls in 10 operating areas within the Bundeswehr-Zentralkrankenhaus were gradually replaced.
Alan Gibson has worked at Röchling Industrial as a Business developer since 2005. His primary focus for the healthcare sector is to provide products that support the health and wellbeing of patients.
May 2021 Health Estate Journal 51
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