The bathroom is typically thought of as a sacred place, where your average American can quietly reflect on their thoughts as they clean themselves of all of the germs and dirt that they’ve accumulated throughout the day. This may incline some people to believe that the bathroom is a pretty clean place, since it is the room where we rid ourselves of the bacteria and germs on our bodies.
But would you be surprised if I told you that the bathroom in your home has approximately 16,240,000 colony-forming units on your shower curtain? What about your shower floor, which harbors 15,833,333 colony-forming units? And your toilet, that you come in contact with everyday, has 235,143 colony-forming units. To clarify, a colony-forming unit is a unit used to estimate the number of viable bacteria or fungal cells in a sample. So every time you enter the bathroom in your home, on average, you are coming in contact with over 30 million colony-forming units of bacteria. Remember that next time you enter a bathroom!
Now, just imagine those numbers in a public facility full of sick people. According to Mark Lawinger’s article titled “Minimizing hospital infections starts in the restroom, “Studies have also shown almost half of all HAIs [Hospital Acquired Infections] may be caused by infected water, while the other half can simply be a factor of unwittingly coming into contact with contaminated fixtures and surfaces. Hospital water systems and bathrooms can be ideal places for germs to breed. Many bacteria thrive between 25 and 42 C (77 and 108 F), the precise temperature range of most hospital water.”
One example of such disease is Clostridium difficile (C. diff), which in recent times, has reached “epidemic proportions.” According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 500,000 Americans were infected with C. diff, with 29,000 cases resulting in death within 30 days of exposure.
Hospitals are supposed to help people get better, not worse. Moreover, HAI’s cost hospitals $20 billion a year. So what can hospitals do to lower the amount of Hospital Acquired Infections for their patients? Below is a short list of suggestions that hospitals can incorporate into their business models to combat this problem. These suggestions could quite literally save the lives of your patients.
New Technology:
Faucets are a breeding ground for germs, but if hospitals implemented electronic, touch-free faucets, it would lower the amount of harmful bacteria that patients come in contact with when washing their hands, as it removes the contact point. Other advantages of implementing a hands-free faucet includes water conversation, in addition to allowing anyone, regardless of any physical disability, to wash their hands. Some faucet features also have LCD displays that guides users, particularly people with disabilities or elderly citizens who need additional assistance, through the handwashing process.
Touchless sensor flushometers reduce germ-spreading contact and also reduce water volume by 30 percent, utilizing novel approaches such as dual-flush technology.
As we continue to dive deeper into the age of technology, and consumers continue to demand products with ease of convenience and high quality service, healthcare professionals and executives should continue to keep an eye out for emerging technologies in the facility maintenance and cleaning services industry, to not only provide a better product and generate or reallocate revenue, but to also save the lives of patients who are entrusting healthcare professionals to provide them with top quality service.
2. Design
Healthcare facilities should also consider implementing a bedpan washers into toilets in
order to minimize the backsplash of infected water when it’s time for the hospital staff to
clean the bathrooms. While one normally wouldn’t think of staff as an originator of HAI’s,
they’re human too, and they are around sick patients all day! The backsplash causes
staff to come in direct contact with bacteria when cleaning bedpans. Elmhurst Hospital in
Illinois implemented a bedpan washer to provide nurses with an efficient and effective
way to clean bedpans, while also minimizing their exposure to bacteria. This also
eliminates the need for bacteria-infested hose sprays, which require extra resources
dedicated towards housekeeping.
Annabella Koloskov, who now designs for healthcare facilities, believes that the fall of
her father could have been prevented had a hand railing been in place that connected
from her father’s bedside to the bathroom. Her father recently suffered a stroke, and his
sense of balance was off when he ended up falling on his way to the bathroom. “If we
can avoid small mistakes, it’s not only better for the patients, but for the staff as well.”
3. Utilizing Data to Quantify the Effectiveness of Washroom Management
In Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Hospital authority utilizes quantitative and qualitative
data to measure the effectiveness of their cleaning staff. The quantitative approach
records how often their facilities are being cleaned, a checklist for staff to record the
methodology of their cleaning, and performance measurements, to track the
effectiveness of their approach. The qualitative approach is customer based, where they
use end-user satisfaction surveys and internal and external audits.
Hospitals need to ensure that their staff and facility management service providers are
providing them with the most hygienic facilities attainable. As a result, hospitals should
expect a reduction in the amount of infections acquired in their facilities.
Viral infections and bacterial strains continue to plague hospitals across the world, but hospitals have the opportunity to combat this problem through new technology, improved design layouts, and utilizing data. It is up to hospitals to reduce HAI’s and death that are caused by services that they are ultimately responsible for.
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