Each year almost 100,000 people walk into a hospital, acquire a new infection from the healthcare environment, and unfortunately, do not survive. Bleak way to start an article, yes, but it sets the stage for how important infection control and prevention has become to all of us.
What if the chairs that we sat in while waiting for a medical appointment, or the chair in an in-patient room, or the stool that the clinician sits on, or the desk where the healthcare staff works, could prevent mold, mildew, fungus, and bacteria growth 24 hours of every day, 7 days of every week?
Here are just two of the companies that have made this a reality, using two very different, but very natural, elements - sand and silver.
1. Sittris
What Types of Furniture Do They Make?
Sittris furniture categories include:
- Sittris PA: This is Sittris' patient chair. The patient chair is the high-back chair typically found in a patient room. The purpose of this chair is not for family members to use as a guest chair when visiting, but instead it is meant to encourage the patient to get out of bed and speed their recovery by sitting upright. The chair's flex back and comfortable seat encourages improved blood circulation throughout the patient's body. The arms, seat, and back are all cleanable with a germicidal wipe for example and are made of materials that resist microbial, viral, and bacterial growth.
- Sittris Siliform AL: The Siliform AL is an elegant-looking polished aluminum 4-leg chair designed for use as a guest or visitor's chair. You may consider using this chair in a lobby, waiting room, patient room for a visitor's chair, clinics, or training rooms.
- Sittris Siliform NS: The Sittris Siliform NS is a task chair designed for healthcare staff. The chair sits on a five-star base with casters like a typical office chair. The material however, like other Sittris chairs, inhibits bacterial, viral, and other types of microbial growth. This type of chair would be worth considering for your nurse stations, labs, and clinics.
- Sittris Siliform Lab Chairs: The Lab chair is similar to the task chair. It essentially serves as an elevated task stool for healthcare workers who need to work at bench-height or countertop-height worksurfaces. These usually include labs, pharmacies, medical offices and clinics.
- Sittris Sky Stools: The Sky Stool is Sittris' version of the physician stool. It's typically the low stool found in an exam room, and sometimes it has no back. The foot pedal allows for hands-free height adjustability so that the clinician can keep her hands clean after she has scrubbed into the room. The upholstery can be Sittris' Siliform upholstery, which is made of silicone, and is the basis behind their antimicrobial technology.
How Does Sittris Furniture Prevent the Spread of Germs?
With sand.
Sittris uses silicone to upholster its seating products that can be used throughout the hospital or clinic. Silicone is inert, so germs, bacteria, mold, and viruses simply cannot grow on it. Staff members simply and quickly wipe it down after patient use and it is clean and safe again.More »
2. National
What Types of Furniture Do They Make?
National's furniture categories include:
- Office Desks and Workstations: You may not think of a desk or an administrative workstation as "healthcare furniture", but look around. All of those healthcare workers need desks and workstations for ordering lab tests and prescriptions, and recording information in the patient record.
- Wood Arm Chairs: Like their "office desk and workstation" category above, National has a long list of models that could be listed here. You would be best served by visiting their website to peruse their offering. Their various wood arm chairs are designed to be effective against the spread of microbes in lobbies, waiting areas, and registration desks.
How Does National Furniture Prevent the Spread of Germs?
With silver.
National uses "Silver Ion" Technology to inhibit germ growth on any of their wood desk or wood arm chair surfaces. These are the places where people touch or sneeze, and the potassium and sodium ions would mix into the humidity of the untreated surface, thus making a nice home for a virus or other microbes to grow.By mixing in silver ions into their wood finish, silver, a natural and safe germ inhibitor, blocks key parts of the potassium and sodium ions so that viruses and bacteria cannot stay alive on the surface.More »