Door handles that emit sanitizer when touched may help curb the spread of germs
OpenClean Technologies, a division of Altitude Medical, has introduced what they say is the world's first hand-sanitizing door handles. The latest versions the company’s TurnClean and PullClean are available for multiple markets and can accommodate any restroom door to stop the spread of germs.
Hand hygiene compliance is still a problem in the healthcare setting even though hand washing is the considered one of the main contributors to pathogen spread. In fact, one company labeled a survey result they uncovered as “the dirty truth” and correctly so: “Healthcare workers only clean their hands as often as they should 39 percent of the time, and just 8.5 percent of hand sanitization events adhere to all steps of the proper technique.”
Although installing door handles is far from providing the silver bullet, they may add another layer of protection while encouraging improved hand-hygiene behavior.
“While clean hands can dramatically reduce the spread of germs and infections, one of the biggest obstacles is getting people to use sanitizer regularly, because even with multiple dispensers in the restroom, they simply forget,” said the OpenClean press release. “With TurnClean and PullClean door handles, users will experience a "behavioral" design that places hand sanitizer in their normal pathway as they exit the restroom (it's in the door handle), replacing two separate actions (sanitizing and then opening a door) into one seamless movement.”
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center saw the rate of hand sanitation rise from 24 percent to 77 percent after the door handles were installed, according to a pilot trial of a prototype of TurnClean featured in the company’s news release.
OpenClean systems contain a tube-shaped cartridge placed in the center of a hollow door handle, which releases a small amount of sanitizer when the black paddle is pushed, explained the company, adding that TurnClean and PullClean sanitizer cartridges are filled with a medical-grade hand sanitizer that kills more than 99.99 percent of germs. The cartridges, which are refillable, contain 420 pumps per cartridge for PullClean and 500 pumps per cartridge for TurnClean.
