Choosing for Healthcare

Employers, organisations and specifiers have a duty of care to every employee, patient, resident and visitor within healthcare environments. With regulations becoming ever more demanding and the ever-present risk of litigation, it is vital to be able to provide and maintain a safe and hygienic environment.

The Facts: Slips And Trips

The European Commission’s ‘Campaign for a Safer EU’ aims to reduce slip and trip accidents by 25% by 2012. In the UK alone, 54% of all reported major accidents in the healthcare sector are caused by a slip or trip. Many injuries are of a serious nature, and the resulting civil claims are high, with vast sums paid out to injured parties.
Floor surface contamination is responsible for most slips and trips in healthcare establishments. Products that are not fit for purpose can be a cause. Altro’s safety flooring range exhibits slip resistant properties even when wet, plus the embedded anti-slip layer offers slip resistance for the full lifetime of the product.
All Altro safety flooring exceeds the recommended minimum UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Slip Resistant Value (SRV) of 36.

The Facts: Hygiene & Infection Control

The World Health Organisation reports that the most frequent route of infection transmission in the healthcare industry is indirect contact. Clean surfaces remove the breeding-ground for most bacteria. A thorough cleaning and disinfection regime to combat the spread of infection can be supported by impervious and easy to clean surfaces.
It is important that equipment and surfaces should be designed for ease of cleaning and be made of materials that won’t harbour micro-bacterial growth.

Altro safety floors

• Tests by independent research laboratory CCFRA Technology Limited confirm that Altro safety flooring inhibits the growth of MRSA and VRE
• Revolutionary Altro Easyclean Maxis Technology is independently proven to outperform other leading safety floors for cleanability
• All Altro safety flooring is unaffected by alcohol hand gels or chlorine packs used to disinfect the spillages of blood or body fluids

Altro Whiterock cladding systems – wall cladding, ceilings and doorsets

• Altro offers flooring and walling solutions with surfaces that are easy to clean and have low dirt retention
• All Altro wall cladding includes Altrosan, an integral bacteriostat that helps prevent the growth of bacteria
• Altro Whiterock wall cladding meets all current EU Directives on health and hygiene
• Altro’s ceiling surfaces are smooth, impervious and easy to clean
• All Altro doorsets have smooth handles for easy cleaning and are able to withstand detergents and disinfectants

The Facts: Wear And Tear

Alcohol-based hand gels in common usage around hospital wards can in time corrode surfaces. This is not the case with Altro safety flooring and wall cladding.
Altro heavy duty flooring and wall cladding can withstand high usage, chemical attack*, loading and daily knocks and scrapes. A hard-wearing Altro floor, wall or door covering will give many years of service, remaining safe and easy to maintain and continuing to retain appearance throughout. This avoids the need for regular replacement and therefore reduces downtime and long-term expense.
Altro floors, doors and walls are resilient and designed to resist the harshest treatment.

Hospital and Care Home Specification Considerations

Flooring

• Drainage/existing substrate
• Type of equipment and wheeled furniture
• Proposed cleaning and disinfection regime
• Ground floor or upper floor location
• Stairs or ramps
• Activities in different areas
• Spillages of food, bodily fluids or chemicals
• Hand gel facilities
• Potential for staining of floors
• Floor signage/colour coding requirement
• Contrasting colours required for inclusive design
• Time available for installation
• Colour, choice, contrast and appearance
• Heavy, shoe or barefoot traffic

Walls

• Existing substrate/wall finish
• Extra impact resistance required
• Pipes, vents, ducts, wall furniture, window and door frames
• Colour/colour contrast, finish requirement
• Need for wall signage and colour coding
• Hygiene requirement
• Proposed cleaning or disinfection regime
• Time available for installation
• Coved skirting to prevent corners, for hygiene and easy cleaning

Ceilings & doors

• Vision panels in doors
• Open/shut doors in corridors
• Need for colour contrast on doors & frames or walls & ceilings
• Natural, direct or surface fixed lighting
• Ceiling access
• Cleaning regime
• Time available for installation

*If in doubt, please contact us for further information.