PRODUCT & SERVICE LINE REPORTS


“The manufacturer’s instructions for use reuire the multistep process that is difficult to remember and takes around 45 minutes to perform on just the mattress and bed frame,” Hooker indicated. “Training environmental services personnel and ensuring that they have performed adeuate cleaning is diffi- cult. Also, hospitals need rooms turned over quickly, which does not give EVS personnel time to do perform adequate cleaning.”


3. Non-fluid proof seams


“Many healthcare mattresses have sewn zip- per seams that create 3,000 holes around the perimeter of the mattress surface, allowing fluids to leak into the mattress, he warned.


4. Mattresses that cannot be opened “Although many mattresses have zippers to allow for routine inspection of the inside for damage, most hospitals fail to routinely open these mattresses and inspect them,” Hooker noted. “Some mattresses, especially those used in operating rooms and emer- gency departments, cannot be opened and inspected for damage and contamination. This allows contaminated mattresses to remain in use, which is a clear and present danger to patients.”


Linda Lybert, Founder/Executive Director, Healthcare Surfaces Institute Inc., takes aim at the first step after stripping the bed of linens.


How do you make a used mattress sustainable? Recycle it


As healthcare organizations strive to maintain their mattress stock amid normal wear-and- tear usage through cleaning and decontamina- tion, they eventually have to replace them. Short of general or specialized disposal, they


have another option: Recycling. “All mattresses, no matter how well main-


tained, eventually need to be replaced,” said Tom Smith, Marketing Manager, Mattress Recy- cling Council (MRC). “Our recyclers have found secondary markets for more than 75% of the mattress components to be reused in other industrial and consumer products. In our first six years of operation, MRC has recycled more than 10 million mattresses, diverting more than 380 million pounds from landfills.” The Mattress Recycling Council currently


operates statewide mattress recycling pro- grams in California, Connecticut and Rhode Island with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of old mattresses being disposed of in landfills, according to Smith. How does it work? MRC programs are funded in California, Con- necticut and Rhode Island by a recycling fee, varied by state, and charged on the sale of each mattress and/or box spring, according to Smith. “Whenever a healthcare facility in any of


these three states purchases a new mattress, it is paying the local state fee,” he said. “Thus, when a hospital or nursing home replaces in bulk a number of mattresses, the fee is being paid in multiples on the number of units pur- chased. In each state, MRC has assembled a statewide collection network composed of the existing solid waste infrastructure to aggregate mattresses from waste haulers, landfills, transfer stations and public works yards as well as mattress retailers and other commercial sources. “MRC has a special unit to organize the bulk


pick-up of discarded mattresses from health- care facilities, hotels and universities,” Smith continued. “It can arrange for the free pickup of these old mattresses that will be transported


to a recycling facility. The fee the healthcare facility paid when purchasing a large number of new mattresses will be covering the disposal. In a number of cities in the other 47 states, there are individual non-profit organizations or for-profit recyclers that will also recycle mat- tresses for a fee.” Throughout its network, MRC has trans-


ported more than 15,000 truckloads of mat- tresses each year to recycling facilities for disassembly, he adds. In California, Connecticut and Rhode Island,


mattress recycling makes economic and envi- ronmental sense for healthcare organizations looking to dispose of old mattresses, accord- ing to Smith. “The healthcare facility will pay a disposal


fee to trash an old mattress,” he noted. “The original natural resources within the mattress will be lost forever either buried in a landfill or consumed in an incinerator. [Meanwhile], recycling a discarded mattress with MRC is eco- nomically sound because the cost of recycling has been paid by the recycling fee – which is considerably less than a landfill fee. The steel, foam and wood within a mattress and foun- dation are readily recycled and sold on the scrap market.” Smith adds that MRC has funded more


than 20 research projects to find new and/ or higher value uses for the remaining fabrics and materials. But Smith issues some caveats about mat-


tress quality needed for recycling. The recyclers within the Mattress Recycling


Council network will accept any mattress that is not infested or excessively soiled,” he said. “Contaminated mattresses must be properly disposed of in a landfill.” Smith encourages healthcare organizations to visit MRC’s website, MattressRecyclingCouncil.org, for access to guides, resources and videos, and for infor- mation about bulk pickup services for health- care facilities, https://byebyemattress.com/ programs-by-state/commercial-recycling/.


48 September 2022 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • hpnonline.com “We are trying to deal with a microbial


issue at a macro level,” she observed. “We cannot see microbes, yet we assume that a mattress is clean and not damaged based on a visual inspection. When we see the dam- age, microbes have already penetrated the surface. Not only is the outside of the mat- tress cover potentially harboring pathogens the mattress’s core may as well. Pathogens may be released from the inner core when someone lays and moves on the mattress. There have been reports of moisture seeping up from the inside of the mattress through seams and damaged outer surface.”


Watch for covert vs. overt effects Among the “covert” dangers and hazards arising from improperly decontaminated mattresses, fluid entry into patient mat- tresses is the first thing to come to the mind of Don Rotter, RD&E Program Leader, Healthcare Infection Prevention, Ecolab Inc. “No patient should ever experience get- ting wet from a patient mattress,” he said. “Patients deserve better and should not be exposed to biohazardous material ever, let alone in their most vulnerable state.” Much depends on the cleaning/dis- infecting products used on the beds and mattresses. “A variety of cleaners/disinfectants exist


in the marketplace, giving end users a great deal of options for addressing sources of hospital-acquired infections,” Rotter con- tinued. “Most of these products, however, are not sporicidal and provide no efficacy against spore-forming bacteria. Generally, end users must rely on oxidative chemistry for this level of efficacy, but manufacturers rarely recommend such chemistry for rou- tine use, if at all, on their equipment. End users with no options must either adopt their infection control protocol of proactively using sporicidal chemistries, sometimes going against manufacturer instructions, or not use sporicidal products and risk address- ing potential sources of hospital acquired infections.”


Jessica Mathieson, General Manager and Vice President, Acute Care, Stryker Corp., alerts healthcare staffers to the types of prod- ucts being used to decontaminate beds and mattresses. She cautions about “cleaning wipes that don’t truly disinfect and steril- ize surfaces; there is a difference,” she said. “Minimal cracks and crevices can harbor


hard to reach microorganisms,” Mathieson indicated. “The differential of cleaning prod- ucts and a system’s ability to acknowledge that changes may be made to cleaning protocol is an issue that has been popping up occasionally. However, with hospitals adhering to new auditing guidelines being set by governing organizations, we are see- ing a decline on issues related to this.


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