Hospitals are waking up to the role that privacy curtains play in their infection control strategy.
Hospital curtains are there to preserve patient dignity and reduce the spread of airborne pathogens. But research shows that hospitals typically don’t wash them often enough to prevent the manual transfer of these germs, due to frequent touching of the curtains by medics, hospital staff, patients and visitors.
The reason for this is simple: changing curtains is laborious. It normally requires two staff members and a step ladder, which is time consuming and risky. Washing and drying curtains is expensive, and storing them is a pain.
We know this because our healthcare clients face these issues every day. And we believe that InstaSwap is the ideal solution, as we helped one Toronto hospital to find out.
Sunnybrook Hospital: A curtain hygiene case study
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center is an academic health science center located in Toronto. It is Canada’s largest trauma hub, and as a teaching hospital is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto. It has 638 acute beds.
Hospital curtains were a significant pain point for Sunnybrook. Cost was a major issue with an annual spend well in excess of $200,000 on curtain laundering alone. Added to this were concerns about infection control, injury to staff during curtain changes, bed turnaround time and the general visual appearance of existing curtains, which were a hotchpotch of different sizes and styles.
In 2019, we presented Sunnybrook with detailed costings to inform their decision-making process on our InstaSwap product.
By changing to InstaSwap, Sunnybrook was able to save:
• $106.05 per bed per year on laundry
• $32.75 per bed per year on labor
• 38.5 days per year in time on curtain changes
• $88,500 per year in total – equivalent to the cost of 5.9 additional MedSurg beds
Sunnybrook will achieve complete ROI within 5.9 years – all whilst improving infection control, reducing risk, and improving aesthetics throughout the facility. InstaSwap is also helping them to achieve PIDAC standards. Once payoff is complete, their InstaSwap system will go on saving money that can be used for other vital improvements and resources within this pioneering hospital.
What is InstaSwap?
InstaSwap facilitates frequent, floor level curtain changes thanks to its innovative modular design which allows soiled curtains to be removed and replaced using heavy duty snap fasteners. The antimicrobial curtain panels are lightweight, reducing laundry costs, and a standard size for easy inventory. Variations in ceiling height are accommodated by adjusting the height of the top mesh portion.
To discuss how InstaSwap can benefit your facility, why not book a Discovery Session with our InstaSwap expert, Travis McCamley? Email [email protected] to set something up.
