The medical profession faces two challenges.

Everyone hopes when going to the hospital, they come out well. Sadly, that is not always how things work out.

This mission is of significant concern for health care management. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 5% of all hospital admissions result in a health care-associated infection, culminating in approximately 722,000 infections and 75,000 deaths annually and $28-$33 billion in excess costs.

Health care settings are dealing with incidents of inpatient suicide and those with undiagnosed psychiatric problems. In 2008, inpatient suicide was the second most frequent sentinel event (defined as “an unexpected event involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or the risk of such an event”) reported by The Joint Commission.

There were 16 and 30 hospital inpatient suicides identified in the National Violent Death Reporting System during 2014 and 2015, respectively. It is estimated that between 48.5 and 64.9 hospital inpatient suicides occur per year in the United States, with 31.0-51.7 of these events occurring during psychiatric hospitalization.

Compared with people who don’t work in the medical field, health care workers face an increased risk of suicide, especially registered nurses, health care support workers and health technicians. The study, published in the medical journal JAMA, estimates that the annual suicide rate in the United States among health care workers alone is about 14 per 100,000 person-years compared with about 13 per 100,000 person-years among non-health care workers.

Adding tools to the facility’s plumbing arsenal will address these challenges for patients, staff, and health care facility management.

Stagnant water — sending infections down the drain

In a health care setting, water is everywhere because it plays a significant role in treatment. But lurking in the pipes in health care facilities is the danger that these settings can become infectious can become stagnant, compromising patient immune systems. Health care facilities are subject to a host of infections.

One concern is the shower system in patient rooms. The shower hose and the water in the pipes are only partially draining after repeated use. Having EVS drape shower hoses into the shower stall to drip out water does not fully drain the water and creates additional safety hazards.

Hospitals are looking for ways to remove the manual drop of the hose. There are now methods for retrofits or new shower construction. For retrofit, specialty shower hoses can automatically drain standing water in the shower hose with a special drain assembly. After each use, water drains automatically from the hand spray and hose via drain assembly that is integrated into the hose, allowing the water to easily flow out. This design eliminates draping the hose where it could touch the floor and risk further contamination.

For new construction, the water column behind the wall can also be drained with an Auto Drain valve that removes stagnant water in the shower column. Water drains automatically from the shower system at shut-off in under a minute. This function can be available as a separate remote drain close to the floor or integrated into the shower trim.

Enhancing personal hygiene by making faucets untouchable

Staff use water for patient treatment and best practices suggest washing their hands with soap and water before and after each patient encounter, especially if they are touching surfaces. One surface that demands attention is the handles on faucets. Influenza, salmonella, e-coli, C. diff, and many other germs are on that list.

The problem with washing your hands of these sources for illness is using faucets with handles. A Special Pathogens Lab study found that on faucet handles in one health care facility, a faucet handle can be the home of over 2,000 bacteria colony-forming units. Faucet handles can transmit from person-to-person germs such as influenza, salmonella, and the common cold.

Smarter faucets mean safer patients and health care staff. If a user doesn’t touch a faucet, the opportunity for cross-contamination is significantly reduced, if not eliminated. Touchless electronic faucets enable the user to avoid contact with the handle and are an alternative to a traditional, manually operated faucet. It can sense motion and turn on the water automatically, keeping bacteria off hands. For medical personnel, these faucets can meet Centers for Disease Control handwashing guidelines.

For a touchless faucet to earn its place, the sensor in the faucet must deliver water quickly and stop flowing when the user withdraws hands to save water.

These faucets go beyond simply dispensing water and they make it easier for facilities management. They offer several settable modes, including a scrub mode with a settable duration up to 180 seconds.

Ensuring all faucets are in top shape

In medium to large-scale medical and long-term care facilities, the large population of faucets can be a maintenance challenge. Proper operation of this plumbing is crucial to the patients' and residents' health and safety. Facility managers are tasked with managing these efforts and are often short on time and staff due to labor shortages.

Plumbing manufacturers have risen to the challenge by developing apps to easily control and manage multiple faucet operations. These apps allow the maintenance department to determine operational status, water temperature, faucet and pipe flushing and water usage to save water and additional resources.

Preventing harm

After a modest decline from 2019 and 2020, the stress of the pandemic reversed that trend. According to the CDC, suicide rates increased 16% during 2022. In a 2018 Joint Commission study, hanging was found to be the most common method of inpatient suicide.

Though suicides happen in many places, the key is minimizing the means whenever possible, including environments such as mental health and behavioral health institutions, where the patients can pose a significant hazard.

In September 2023 the Biden-Harris administration issued a Fact Sheet that announced a crackdown on nursing homes that endanger resident safety. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will undertake new analyses of state inspection findings to ensure cited deficiencies receive the appropriate consequence, particularly in incidences involving resident harm.

Behavioral centers, long-term care and other medical centers are looking to reduce patient opportunities for harm. For example, ligature prevention faucets must not have any ligature points, so manufacturers have come out with rounded and sloped designs that meet those needs, yet are touchless and easy to operate. This design resists the attachment of bed sheets, cords or any other material that may result in injury or loss of life yet makes running water easy to access.

In addition, they are incorporating a rugged design to withstand damage attempts from vandalism. For durability, look for faucets that feature one-piece cast brass bodies in polished chrome and have a recessed tamper or vandal-resistant outlet.

Additional safety measures incorporate showers with ADA-compliant components, ligature-resistant shower heads, shower handles and escutcheons. The shower head also deters self-injury attempts with a design that now has a shower arm anchored to the wall with four tamper-resistant screws. The trim also has a rounded slope design to minimize ligature points and withstand abuse. Look for ligature-resistant products that are listed with the New York State Office of Mental Health.

In long term care settings, administrators and nursing staff need to be observant of seniors scalding themselves by being vigilant especially during handwashing or showering and using water that is too hot. Plumbing codes require thermostatic protection and most facilities address this with a “master mixer” that protects a bank of fittings. Having the scald protection integral to the faucet adds and extra layer of security and ensures your facility meets code.

A healthy dose of safety for health care

With industry and government agencies mandating infection control measures and patient safety environments, plumbing manufacturers are focused on creating products that help facilities do their jobs of achieving positive outcomes for their patients.

Working with a plumbing products manufacturer experienced in healthcare facilities provides a positive healing experience for patients, caregivers, long-term care residents and staff.