Pandemic Brings Batesville Innovation to the Forefront
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe COVID-19 pandemic is taking cleaning and sterilization processes to a much higher level at hospitals and healthcare facilities and a Batesville-based product says its product is getting more attention as a result. Trinity Guardion makes mattress barriers that it says protects patients from hospital-acquired infections. The company says its product is already being used at 16 hospitals, including five major academic centers and the Indiana Spine Institute.
In an interview with Business of Health Reporter Kylie Veleta, Chief Executive Officer Bruce Rippe said the pandemic is creating traction for the company.
Hospital mattresses typically have a vinyl-like shell that can’t be removed. The industry standard is to wipe down the mattress and the bed deck with disinfectant between patients.
“The hospital mattresses were vinyl at one point up until 25 or 30 years ago and then they became polyurethane,” said Rippe. “And what’s happened is they’ve gone from a hard, non-porous surface to a soft, porous surface and as a result, they’ve become much more difficult to clean and disinfect because there’s no soft-surface disinfectants available in the market to use.”
Ripple says Trinity Guardion’s product replaces the cleaning and disinfecting process by using a launderable barrier cover between patients. Once a patient is discharged, the cover can be laundered and reused.
The company recently completed a study that researched organisms involved in hospital-acquired infections. Rippe says the study revealed the laundry process resulted in a 99.99% reduction of microorganisms on the surface.
“That’s really important because the current process hospitals use today only kills about 70% of the bacteria that’s on the surface. So it’s far more effective in creating a safer patient surface than you can get through a manual disinfection process the hospitals typically use today.”
While the study didn’t specifically look at the coronavirus, Rippe says the issues are very similar to other organisms that cause hospital-acquired infections.