It goes without saying that a hospital needs to be incredibly clean and sterile in order to be suitable for occupancy. Consequently, there are a number of stringent health and safety guidelines a medical facility must pass to ensure that it is indeed a safe environment for the treatment of patients. One of these guidelines includes the safety and sterility of the hospital furniture. Here is a brief guide to help you keep your hospital furniture sterile, safe, and in top condition:
1) Hospital and medical office furniture can be a bacteria breeding ground, putting patients at great risk for contracting infections. So in order to remove the liability from your facility you must not only clean the furniture, but detail it, as you would the interior of a car. Every seam, crevice, crack, etc. must be sterilized with an anti-bacterial cleaning solution. It goes without saying that the furniture's material should be easily wipe able. Soft, cloth materials, although comfortable, can really be a haven for germs and bacteria, as they can get embedded in their fibers. If you do choose cloth furniture, like chairs and lounge sofas, you should consider covering it with vinyl so it is easier to clean and sterilize.
2) In order for your hospital furniture to be safe, it not only has to be sterile, but relatively new. It's no secret that quality hospital furniture can be expensive. With that said, your medical facility should invest in the highest quality hospital furniture to ensure that you're getting your money's worth. You want the furniture to last for years to come and in order to get that guarantee you'll need to purchase quality brands.
3) If you're leaning towards purchasing new hospital furniture, you should look into the most advanced furniture out there today. There are new furniture prototypes being constructed with cutting edge techniques to make them easier to clean, in turn, fight against the spread of MRSA and other healthcare associated infections. Not surprisingly, research has shown that patient hand-touch sites provide the greatest risk for patient contamination.
4) Examples of new hospital furniture design technology include bedside cabinets with continuous molded form that makes for easy cleaning. In these high-tech models, the drawers are fitted with electronic wristband locks. Even something like the bedside curtains are now being created with an easily sanitized grab-zone. There is also a new mattress prototype being created in which the mattresses change color when wet using special ink, which allows for regular assessment rather than the current once a year audit.
5) If getting new and technologically advanced hospital furniture just isn't in your facility's price range, then you need to do all you can to ensure you're properly sanitizing those hand-touch sites. From the hospital mattresses to the lounge chair armrests, everything is a possibly disease transmitter, so be safe and sterilize. MRSA and other healthcare associated infections can seriously put your facility in liability, so go the extra mile if you have to and protect yourself and your patients.
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