Will This New Medical Device Decrease the Number of Hospital Acquired Infections?

Just days ago, scientists debuted a new medical device to install near doors at hospitals in order to maintain sterile environments and help decrease the risk of spreading a hospital acquired infection (HAI). Surfaceskins is a new self-disinfecting textile. Will it prove to be the magic bullet we need to stop hospital acquired infections?

A company that emerged from a laboratory group at the University of Leeds set out to solve one problem: Mitigate the risk of spreading germs via people touching hospital doors. Doors are indeed one of the “weak links” in the hospital sterilization process, as people are often coming from unsterilized environments and entering sterile ones. But have they succeeded?

Hospital acquired infections are a worldwide problem

Surfaceskins is a new textile that is actually three textiles put together (but nonwoven). These textiles create a soft pad of sorts. Antibacterial gel is excreted when pressure is put on the pad by an individual’s hand, thus cleansing the hand and the textile pad at the same time. After one week of use or 1,000 hand pushes, the pad must be replaced. This British-made device is meant to be stuck to a wall next to any door in a hospital. In England, there are 300,000 hospital acquired infections logged per year. In the United States, that number is closer to 1.7 million, and the death rate from these is almost 100,000.

Common hospital acquired infection types of mycobacterium include:

• Mycobacterium abscessus
• Mycobacterium avian
• Mycobacterium fortuitum
• Mycobacterium chimaera

Too many hospital infections lead to soaring healthcare costs, wrongful deaths, and suffering for medical patients and their families. Decreasing the number of hospital acquired infections should be a key component of hospital sanitization and safety protocols. People are dying at an alarming rate, and the hope is that devices like Surfaceskins can provide a cost-effective way to help. The Nonwoven Innovations and Research Institute helped develop Surfaceskins and many other medical products.

At McGowan, Hood, Felder & Phillips, LLC, we have a team of trusted and experienced South Carolina medical malpractice lawyers that wants to help you with your hospital acquired infection case. We provide excellent and comprehensive legal services to individuals and families that need our help. Give us a call today at 803-327-7800 or complete our online contact form, and we will guide you through the appointment process.