Berendsen has delivered an innovative disposable curtain solution to Birmingham Women’s Hospital.
The new curtains have been installed on windows and cubicles in the hospital, which delivers a range of critical health care services to women and their families across the West Midlands and beyond.
Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, was rated among the highest nationally in the latest Patient-Led Assessment of the Care Environment (PLACE) survey for cleanliness, condition, appearance and maintenance, privacy, dignity, and wellbeing.
To maintain its consistently-high standards, the hospital put out a tender for new blinds to cover the windows by 50 beds spread over four floors.
Putting its vast experience of providing textile products to the healthcare sector to use, Berendsen recommended the installation of innovative single-use curtains. The fabric is treated with a synthetic biocidal coating which can destroy up to 99.999% of microbes within one minute of contact. This makes each curtain a powerful force against many of the infections that can pose a threat to hospital patients, including MRSA and Norovirus. Each curtain can be easily replaced as required and the competitive cost makes them better value than the original permanent blind option.
In addition, the use of a single standardised colour of curtain provides aesthetic consistency and unity across the hospital.
The disposable curtain solution from Berendsen was so effective for the windows, the hospital also commissioned the replacement of all existing cubicle curtains.
Berendsen worked around ward schedules to adapt the existing tracking rails around each cubicle to seamlessly fit with the new disposable curtains. This allows staff to change the curtains in seconds, when required.
While the cleaning of each fabric curtain was previously manually scheduled by the ward manager or senior staff nurse, a quick scan of a barcode embedded on the label of each of the disposable curtains ensures that staff know when they are due for replacement, helping to maintain the high level of contamination control.
