For health care interiors, maintenance of a warm, inviting, clean environment is critical. To this end, there's a trend toward problem-solving products for health care design. Manufacturers are developing innovative solutions to help facilities look great while maintaining clean and safe environments of care, according to Chris Connelly, director of project management for paint and coating manufacturer Benjamin Moore & Co.
Benjamin Moore's EcoSpec WB Silver, for example, is an "extremely high-performance commercial paint that's very durable and can stand up to the realities of the [health care] environment," said Connelly in the October 2013 issue of Health Facilities Management magazine. The paint includes elemental silver, along with other Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-approved antimicrobial additives, to inhibit the growth of mildew and block bacterial odors.
Copper also is known to have antimicrobial qualities, according to the article. Harold Michels, P.E., senior vice president of technology and technical services for the Copper Development Association Inc., said that clinical trials conducted at the Medical University of South Carolina, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center showed that the use of copper alloys on high-touch surfaces in intensive care units, coupled with standard hospital cleaning practices, lowered the bacterial load on the surfaces by 83 percent and resulted in a 58 percent reduction in health care-associated infections (HAIs).
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