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PLUMBING
Hands Off! Touchfree Faucets are Important Germ-Fighting
Tools
Transfer of
germs and bacteria that cause infection is one of the
greatest health challenges in today’s facilities. In some
cases, people who go to hospitals for treatment have became
even more ill or died because of sicknesses they contracted
during their stay. Children pick up germs at school and come
home sniffling and listless, and subsequently miss valuable
classroom time.
This faucet, which features a showerhead spray, is
appropriate for healthcare settings because the
design enables users to wash their arms more easily than
with a standard flow device.
While there is
much work to be done on the scientific front to combat
serious infections, there is an easy way to reduce the
spread of germs and bacteria. According to the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hand washing is
the most effective means to curtail infection transfer.
Proper hand washing is critical in the healthcare sector,
and touchfree plumbing provides the means to ensure hands
are washed effectively.
The CDC states that nosocomial infections, or infections
contracted in hospitals, are the fourth-leading cause of
death among Americans. One of these infections is
methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is
not exclusive to hospitals. It can be found in the general
community, and strains have been found in school
populations. The major problem with MRSA is that it is
resistant to treatment with usual antibiotics. (See
“Evolving Infectious Diseases Pose Greater Health Risks” on
page 22.)
Another growing concern is Clostridium difficile, or C.
diff., which is known to cause severe diarrhea, nausea and
abdominal pain and can be fatal. Noroviruses are far more
common in schools. They produce illness frequently referred
to as gastroenteritis, or “stomach flu,” with symptoms
normally including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach
cramping.
The spread of MRSA, C. diff., noroviruses and other
infectious illnesses such as E. coli and influenza can be
prevented with a disciplined level of hand hygiene. Proper
hand hygiene can be reinforced, the CDC states, by insisting
that healthcare workers wash their hands:
• immediately after removing gloves;
• between patient contacts;
• when performing tasks and procedures on the same patient
at different body sites; and
• when otherwise indicated to avoid transfer of
microorganisms to other patients or environments.
Fighting Infection on the Front End
The proof adds up to one commonality for hospitals and
schools: Touchfree faucets are a highly effective way to
reduce the spread of germs and bacteria because hand contact
is not required for their use. Such faucets are doubly
significant because they greatly decrease instances of
crosscontamination resulting from multiple people handling
infected fixtures. In fact, healthcare workers and school
foodservice workers may even wash more frequently because of
hands-free faucet activation.
In schools, unwashed or poorly washed hands can transfer
harmful micro-organisms from food to a student or from a
foodservice worker to food to a student, direct hand-to-hand
contact or indirect hand- to-object contact. Schools can
control the spread of foodborne illness by installing
touchfree, sensor- operated hand-washing sinks in
cafeterias.
By having adequate handwashing equipment conveniently
located, foodservice workers are more apt to comply with
recommended hand-washing procedures as defined by the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA’s protocol requires
four seconds to wet hands, 20 seconds of lathering (outside
the water stream) and another four seconds of rinsing.
Some touchfree faucets use a visible LED that remains lit
while hands are washing. The LED also may prompt some
healthcare and foodservice workers to wash their hands for
the amount of time prescribed by the FDA or their employer.
Evolving Infectious Diseases Pose Greater
Health Risks
Bacteria and germs that cause infectious
diseases are present wherever we go, and it’s
our actions – or inactions – that enable them to
spread from person to person.
It’s proven that proper hand-washing hygiene can
limit the spread of diseases that sicken, and
even kill, countless people worldwide each year.
But confronting this issue is becoming tougher,
because studies show diseases such as
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
are adapting to become resistant to antibiotics.
Furthermore, healthcare officials are seeing an
increase in various types of
antibiotic-resistant bacteria. According to the
CDC, some of these include enterococci, which
can affect the urinary tract, the bloodstream or
wounds; and acinetobacter, which is found almost
exclusively in healthcare facilities and can
cause pneumonia or serious blood or wound
infections.
These types of bacteria are becoming more potent
because as we attack them, they adapt to
survive. Some have adapted so well, we no longer
know how to kill them.
MRSAcan be deadly in its worst forms. Perhaps
the most important thing to remember is that
it’s preventable. The CDC reports that MRSA
moves from one infected person to the next. The
main mode of transmission is through human
hands, especially healthcare workers’ hands.
If appropriate hand hygiene such as washing with
soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand
sanitizer is not performed, the bacteria can be
spread when the healthcare worker touches other
patients. Germs and bacteria can also reside on
and be picked up from inanimate objects,
including bed rails, door handles and healthcare
equipment.
In non-hospital settings, such as in schools,
MRSA generally surfaces as a skin infection,
appearing as pimples or boils that can swell,
become painful and ooze.
Patients with MRSA are more likely to die from
their infection than those who have other types
of infections contracted in the hospital
setting, but MRSA is treatable. However, it’s a
hit-and-miss treatment that can call for several
rounds of antibiotics to see which will work.
It usually occurs in patients with weak immune
systems who have undergone surgery and are
recovering in a healthcare facility. The CDC
reports that MRSA in healthcare settings
commonly causes serious and potentially
life-threatening infections, such as in the
bloodstream and at surgical sites.
Not all preventable infectious diseases are
lethal. Everything from the common cold to
norovirus, which causes gastroenteritis, can be
spread from person to person, either through
direct or indirect contact. Following are a few
of the many other infectious diseases that are
preventable with proper hand-washing:
• Shigellosis
• Hepatitis A
• Enterovirus
• Streptococcal disease
• Respiratory syncytial virus
As non-compliance with recommended hand-washing
techniques results in the spread of infection,
we pay the price through lost productivity of
our workforce and children staying home from
school to recuperate.
The costliness of improper hand hygiene can be
great, which makes the installation of touchfree
faucets and other proper hand-washing tools all
the more vital in healthcare and school
facilities. |
Several styles
of touchfree faucets are available for specific school and
hospital applications.
Typical features include:
• variety of spout heights and reaches
• replaceable flow devices
• above- or below-deck mixing valves
• wall-, splash- or deck-mount installation
• hardwire-, battery- or solar-powered electronics
• user-specific electronic controls for run times
• vandal-resistant design
Choosing the right faucet style depends on many factors,
including how it will be used and sink type. Various spout
styles enable faucets to be chosen for specific use
requirements. For foodservice hand washing, options include
a reduced height gooseneck spout, which provides good hand
and wrist clearance while reducing splashing in cramped
areas.
For a hospital scrub sink, a gooseneck faucet with a
surgical bend spout and either a showerhead spray or a
laminar spray head is generally best. The showerhead spray
provides broader coverage than a standard flow device, which
is beneficial for hospital staff when washing arms before
surgery.
A laminar spray head that flows up to 2.2 gpm is necessary
in foodservice, nurse stations and patient rooms. Unlike
aerated-type flow controls, a laminar flow device does not
draw ambient air into the water stream, which limits contact
with airborne bacteria.
The gooseneck faucet features an optional plain-end spout
with an internal flow control device. It may have additional
appeal because it not only limits the chance of airborne
bacteria entering the stream; it eliminates a possible
bacteria collection point.
Effective, yet lower flow-rate spray heads can be used in
areas that serve basic hand-washing needs, especially those
accessed by the public. Most codes specify faucets with 0.5
gpm spray heads for public restrooms and other general
hand-washing stations.
In a school restroom, a pedestal-style faucet is
appropriate. These faucets are more vandal-resistant by
design and can withstand “educational curiosity.” Models are
available that permit additional user control and may be
more appropriate for non-public restrooms where greater
control of operation is needed. Such faucets enable users to
adjust water temperature or janitorial staff to select
“continuous run” or “temporary off” modes to facilitate
cleaning.
For typical restrooms, numerous options exist for
temperature control - ranging from tempered to
useradjustable hot/cold operation integral with the faucet
or mounted separately to the deck.
Though most sensor-operated faucets are powered via
batteries or electrical transformers, solar- owered faucets
that run off natural and artificial light sources are
available.
In addition, all models can be set to run at longer
intervals-up to several minutes-per activation. This is
especially vital in some healthcare applications in which a
constant flow is required.
Easy Access Equals Better Hygiene
A study in Journal Watch indicated that 80 percent of
healthcare workers said that easy access to sinks and
availability of hand-washing facilities led to better
hand-washing compliance. Likewise, research conducted by
Virginia Commonwealth University showed that easily
accessible waterless antiseptic dispensers greatly improved
hand-washing rates among healthcare workers than did
infection-control education alone. The compliance rate rose
from 19 percent after education about the need to wash to 41
percent after installing one dispenser for every four
patient beds.
Consider the following: The Association for Professionals in
Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) reported that
hand-washing causes a significant reduction in the carriage
of potential pathogens on the hands and in healthcare
settings it can result in reductions in patient morbidity
and mortality from nosocomial infection.
According to the “APIC Guideline for Handwashing and Hand
Antisepsis in Health Care Settings,” proper hand washing
occurs in about half of the instances in which it’s
appropriate and usually for a shorter amount of time than
recommended. A recent study at a teaching hospital showed 48
percent compliance with hand-washing guidelines. APIC also
recommends that faucets be turned off by means other than
hands to help prevent recontamination of healthcare workers’
hands after washing.
Because it’s proven that hand-washing is the single most
important way to reduce illness and cross contamination, the
employment of better hand-washing methods is imperative.
Therefore, touchfree faucets may be the best defense against
the invisible enemy of infection, especially when we can no
longer predict how that enemy will look in the future.
Richard Nortier is marketing research manager for Sloan
Valve Company, Franklin Park, IL.
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