This week celebrates World Hand Hygiene! After the horror of dealing with coronavirus this past year, hand hygiene has been magnified worldwide. Everyone learned how to wash their hands efficiently and to wash OFTEN.

Along with good hand hygiene, healthcare systems are looking to enhance their infection prevention programs. They realize good hand hygiene is not enough when it comes to airborne transmissible viruses. Healthcare facilities had already begun to add UV-C technology and other innovative ways to augment the fight against Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs), but COVID-19 accelerated these efforts.

Your equipment planning will have a huge impact on the efficiency and efficacy of your medical examination rooms.  You want to ensure you have everything you need at your fingertips to make seeing patients easier, and to also allow for quicker assessments in order to see as many patients as possible, while still providing optimal care.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) has become a conventional material in the healthcare industry.  From flexible tubing to device components, PVC has found its way into various applications. While some view the material as beneficial to the industry, it does not come without controversy. One major pain point rests with the fact there is no known safe way to produce or dispose of PVC products. Even worse, when PVC is broken down, hydrogen chloride gas and dioxin are released, both of which are hazardous chemicals.

Being aware of non-PVC options should be a priority for planners and purchasers as they design and gather equipment and supplies for projects. Building a sustainable and eco-friendly institution starts with setting a solid foundation, and companies are now offering PVC-free versions of popular products, including upholstery and furnishing elements.

As COVID-19 vaccines continue to be administered, health care systems and other entities are scrambling to build new vaccination sites. Whether repurposing existing space or building from the ground up, equipment needed for these sites must be specified, approved, ordered, assembled, and delivered quickly and efficiently. Associates at CME Corp, a national healthcare equipment distributor, are experts in capital equipment, logistics and technical services.

What’s the difference between a purpose-built pharmaceutical-grade refrigerator and a common dorm or household refrigerator picked up at the local big box store? The CDC gives very clear guidance in their Vaccine Storage and Handling Tool Kit about why these style units are never acceptable.

As the nation continues to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, economies are beginning to re-open, and it may be time to start planning your new hospital construction or renovation projects. Where do you begin? How can you even source and procure your equipment when it may or not be backordered?

Ensuring the safety and protection of their frontline healthcare workers has been a real fear as lack of PPE resources, in particular the N95, meant they have been unable to adequately protect their staff and patients. Like so many other healthcare providers throughout the United States, ProHealth Care based in Waukesha County, WI, has felt the pain of PPE supply shortages that has been caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Ordering, receiving, and installing major capital equipment items presents challenges for many healthcare facilities. The challenge becomes even more complex when multiple large pieces of equipment need to be ordered, received and installed at different locations within a limited period of time without interrupting patient care and workflow.

If you are in charge of ordering medical equipment for a hospital or healthcare facility, you understand the challenges. You’ve searched for easier ways to manage the process, but everything seems to fall short. So what do you really need for ease of mind when it comes to dealing with medical equipment ordering?

We’ve compiled a list of factors you should look for to make the lives of hospital purchasing agents and department managers less stressful.