Infection prevention and control is of paramount importance in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Building owners, facility managers, health facility architects, and anyone else involved in decision making about health facility design need to consider how materials are used in a building that serves this purpose.
Health Facilities Should Provide a Clean and Safe Environment
In the United Kingdom, for example, the National Health Service (NHS) Constitution requires all healthcare organizations to “ensure that services are delivered in a clean and safe environment in an appropriate way, based on national best practices”. Health Buildings Circular (HBN) 00-10, first published by the Ministry of Health in 2011, provided best practice guidance outlining the policy and performance requirements that should be considered when building or renovating a health facility in the UK.
According to HBN: 00-10: “Health facilities should provide a therapeutic environment where the overall design of the building contributes to the improvement process and reduces the risk of health-related infections rather than just being a place of treatment.” These facilities; It must be safe, accessible and attractive to everyone, including patients, doctors, staff and visitors.
The key requirements for every floor, wall and pavement system used in the healthcare environment can be divided into two key performance issues: cleanability and life cycle maintenance. Both of these are inherently related to infection prevention and control.
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Cracked and Jointless Hygienic Floors, Walls and Ceilings, Infection Prevention
The majority of people treated in healthcare facilities are immunocompromised, so infection prevention and control is vital. Because weak immune systems and other conditions make patients more susceptible to infections, healthcare providers have a responsibility to minimize the risk of these patients acquiring Health Care Associated Infections (HCAIs).
Healthcare Associated Infections affect an estimated 6.4 percent of hospitalized patients each year. For this reason, floors, walls and ceilings should be carefully designed so that they can be cleaned effectively and all coatings and surface treatments should be selected for this purpose. If cleaning agents are incompatible with a floor or wall surface treatment, this can lead to softening or hardening, reduced flexibility, cracking, scaling, or discoloration, resulting in changes in the physical properties or quality of the surface. This gives an ugly appearance and may affect the quality of the cleaning method.
When determining wall, ceiling and floor coverings in healthcare facilities, it is imperative to consider the expected usage intensity level for each area of use. If a surface cannot withstand the intensity of use in place, cracks, abrasions and similar defects may occur. These defects, which are left uncorrected or not repaired sufficiently, can adversely affect the cleaning method, creating protected cavities for microbial growth and biofilm formation, and can lead to potential sources of infection.
Because healthcare facilities are exposed to many hazardous substances, including body fluids, all floors, walls and ceilings must be flat, non-porous, rigid and smooth. Surfaces without crevices, open joints and cracks cannot retain or allow the penetration of dirt and moisture and do not become breeding grounds for disease-causing microorganisms.
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