By Dan Hounsell, Senior Editor, Facility Market

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted healthcare facility managers to consider a range of new processes and products to prevent the spread of illnesses and hospital-acquired infections. Many have revisited their organizations’ cleaning and disinfection procedures in an effort to lower infection risks, but performing these tasks to the required standard is a time- and resource-intensive process. Now researchers are taking a closer look at the potential benefit of rethinking surfaces.

New research shows that covering high-touch surfaces in hospitals with silver-impregnated foil could significantly reduce levels of contamination by clinically important bacterial pathogens, according to EurekAlert! The study evaluated the antimicrobial effectiveness of a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) foil containing an integrated silver-based agent containing 2 percent silver ions.

An alternative approach is to use auto-disinfecting surfaces which would make it difficult for pathogens to survive and would require less thorough cleaning to achieve a safe environment. In this study, a silver-impregnated PVC foil was applied to high-touch surfaces in patient rooms where contamination levels of bacterial pathogens were anticipated to be high.