How Your Hospital Locker Rooms Could Be a Breeding Ground for Bacteria
Any medical official can tell you that MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), simply known as infections that are resistant to antibiotics, can be extremely serious. That’s why it’s important to protect your hospital’s locker rooms from essentially becoming a Petri dish for this and other harmful bacteria.
However, like most things in life, there’s a right way and a wrong way to make sure that your staff and patients are protected.
Keeping Hospital Locker Rooms Bacteria-Free
Preventing hospital infections starts with selecting the right materials for both patient and staff facilities, including locker rooms.
More importantly, these cleaning products can be harmful to the cleaning staff, who may be accidently overexposing themselves to fumes and corrosive liquids. For these reasons, it’s important to use cleaning products only as directed or to consider alternative options.
One way to keep your hospital locker rooms free of bacteria is to use bacteria-resistant materials like HDPE, or high-density polyethylene.
Bacteria-Resistant Locker Rooms
HDPE is a heavy-duty plastic material that can be manufactured into lockers, shower stalls, bathroom partitions, and more. This durable material is naturally resistant to bacteria and incredibly easy to clean. Since they have color throughout and aren’t painted, cleaning staff can power wash HDPE surfaces without fear of causing damage.
Just how resistant to germs are HDPE materials? According to independent tests, 98.4% of MRSA bacteria on HDPE surfaces died within just 24 hours without the use of any cleaning products – a significant advantage when planning facilities with minimizing hospital infections in mind.
In addition to limiting the growth of bacteria, HDPE is resistant to dents, scratches, rust, and graffiti. These qualities make it ideal for use in medical facilities as well as schools, government buildings, and more.
HDPE in the Real World
Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, IL, is familiar with the benefits of HDPE materials, having chosen them for use in the clinical area and nurse’s lounge. To maintain a healthy and safe environment, 500 HDPE lockers was installed to replace the previous metal ones.
“The new lockers are much more hygienic than metal because bacteria cannot live on the surface for very long,” said Mary Grimm, RN, nurse manager for maternal child services at the hospital.
Read the full Little Company of Mary Hospital Case Study for more information about their experience with HDPE materials. If you’d like to know how you can use antibacterial restroom hardware, HDPE lockers, shower stalls, and partitions in your hospital locker room, contact us at Scranton Products today.
