The ECRI Institute, a U.S. based non-profit health organization that evaluates the safety, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of health technologies has listed antimicrobial copper as one of the top 10 technologies to watch in its recently published 2014 Top 10 Hospital C-Suite Watch List.
"With this Watch List, healthcare leaders can learn more about potential game changers and use it as guidance when devising strategic growth plans for their facilities," said Robert Maliff, of ECRI, in an article on the Infection Control Today website.
A 2013 study published in the journal of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology said that the use of antimicrobial copper surfaces in hospital rooms reduced the number of healthcare-associated infections in the ICU by 58 percent. The study also found that antimicrobial copper surfaces destroy strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, including the superbugs MRSA and VRE, according to the article.
"Antimicrobial copper is the only hospital touch surface with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) public health registration, allowing manufacturers to claim that copper surfaces can kill specific bacteria … that cause infections and pose a threat to human health," according to the Watch List.
Read the article.
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