Hospitals have struggled to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus infection inside their facilities. And, shortages of personal protective equipment early on were a grave problem, but they were not the only one. Many hospitals have historically done a poor job of preventing people from acquiring infections while inpatients. Now, Andrew Zaleski reports for Stat that replacing stainless steel surfaces with copper may be a key to reducing these infections.
Each year, about two million people develop hospital-acquired infections, What’s worse is that 90,000 people die from these infections. The use of copper materials, including copper surfaces instead of stainless steel could be a smart way to minimize infections.
Copper has been found to kill bacteria that fall on its surface relatively quickly. It offers an antimicrobial surface that releases ions, which break into bacterial cell membranes, killing the DNA and proteins inside them. It neutralizes microbes. And, it does so in a matter of hours. Bacteria can live on stainless steel surfaces for days.
Hospital executives dispute the science, sort of. They are not convinced that replacing stainless steel or plastic surfaces with a copper surface and reducing pathogens in a specific area will lower patients’ likelihood of infection. They acknowledge the correlation between use of copper in place of stainless steel and lower infection rates, but there is not evidence of causation.
But, one researcher is convinced that switching to copper from stainless steel in a hospital room makes a big difference. A study that began in 2007 in hospital intensive care units found that if copper was used for bedrails, intravenous poles, visitors’ chair armrests, patients’ tray tables, and the nurses’ call button, infections dropped by more than half–58 percent. The researcher also found much lower rates of VRE and MRSA, which cause infections.
A different clinical trial found that when copper oxide surfaces were used instead of stainless steel, there was a 78 percent drop in drug-resistant microbes. And, yet another trial had similar results.
A 2019 study found that copper beds in an ICU led to an almost total reduction of bacteria. Ninety-five percent of bacteria were wiped out. That said, funding for that project was from a company that makes copper beds.
It’s not clear whether hospitals have a financial incentive to replace stainless steel with copper. Right now, they see longer hospital stays and possibly more revenue from higher infection rates. When people contract an infection in hospital, they stay longer, at an average additional cost of $43,000.
Moreover, people cannot find information on a hospital’s infection rates easily. And, if they knew the hospital’s infection rate, they likely wouldn’t consider it before electing to use a particular hospital.
For hospitals, switching to copper surfaces is very expensive. It is far less expensive to hire people to assiduously clean surfaces.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Significant drop in hospital infection rates since 2010
- Coronavirus: Scientists test risks of infection at large indoor event
- Urinary tract infections and delirium in older adults
- Could your hospital make you sick? How to protect yourself against hospital-acquired infections
- Coronavirus: Beware of scams
Leave a Reply