Increased options for infection prevention and bed flow managers

Rediroom provides an instant and mobile patient isolation solution increasing bed management options for Infection Prevention Teams and Bed Flow Managers.

Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) risks are reduced, and patient flow improved when patients are cared for in the most suitable accommodation. Designed to deliver droplet and contact precautions, Rediroom offers flexible patient isolation and allows managers to respond quickly when balancing changing clinical and patient priorities. Rediroom enables you to convert a bed space in a multi-occupancy bay into a single, temporary isolation room in less than five minutes, using a uniquely designed, compact and mobile, unfolding PPE cart. This delivers the benefits of single occupancy rooms (more privacy, less noise, and better containment of pathogens) and multi-occupancy bays (patient visibility, and reduced cost in terms of staffing).^1,2

Consider this scenario:

Patient X presents to your Emergency Department with symptoms and recent history is highly suggestive of an infection requiring contact precautions. All single rooms within your facility are currently occupied. Do you: A) Keep patient X in the ED bay while you wait for results to confirm an infectious pathogen? — taking up valuable ED space, time and resources, then deal with the issue once you know if patient isolation is required? B) Admit patient X to a multi-bed bay on the ward — with curtains pulled and signage pinned to curtains advising staff, visitors, and other patients of contact precautions? or C) After a risk analysis of current patients in isolation, move one patient currently in a single room, into a multi-bed bay, and following a thorough ‘infectious or discharge clean’ transfer patient X to the single room providing appropriate contact precautions?

This scenario and decision is one made by Infection Prevention and Bed Flow Managers every day in Australian Healthcare facilities. Rediroom provides a 4th option — admit patient X into a multi-bed bay, with Rediroom deployed. This solution allows patient X to be safely cared for, utilising applicable isolation precautions and ensuring all patients receive appropriate care, maintaining privacy and infection prevention standards.

Other applications

• Privacy and dignity: Patients requiring additional privacy/dignity, but single rooms are occupied by higher priority patients.
• Forced transfers to other wards: When single rooms are occupied on specialty wards, patients may be accommodated in single rooms in alternate wards. These patients risk being missed during ward rounds or having care provided by staff unfamiliar with the specialty.
• Observation and single occupancy: Patients requiring contact or droplet isolation and observation present a difficult choice. A single room necessitates one-to-one nursing; providing care in a multi-patient bay increases the risk of infection. Rediroom provides a solution for both scenarios.
   

Functional characteristics of the Rediroom have been evaluated using a simulated ward environment in an Australian study.¹ Participants undertook a range of clinical nursing activities in both Rediroom and a control area. Activities included transferring patients, administering medications, measurement of observations, performing an aseptic technique, bed bathing a patient, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. An analysis of staff movements in the room, staff feedback via interviews and a questionnaire were used to evaluate the functionality of the Rediroom vs control area. Temperature and humidity changes were also measured in both areas. Time taken and the number of movements required to complete clinical nursing activities was similar in the Rediroom and control area.

Another study considered the infection prevention and control characteristics and potential benefits of the Rediroom.² The Rediroom was installed in a simulated clinical environment, and its function from an infection prevention viewpoint was assessed against standards or guidelines for assembly and dismantling and cleanability, as judged by the removal of fluorescent markers.

The Rediroom was found to be fully compliant with 17 of 19 relevant guidelines or standards and partially compliant with the remaining two. The review of assembly and dismantling of the Rediroom identified this to be of limited infection control risk.

Impressively, the Rediroom was installed in less than 5 minutes! Finally, the cleaning assessment found that the Ultra Violet fluorescent markers were completely removed from 23 (96%) of the 24 surfaces marked and partially removed from the remaining surface. Whilst this cleaning assessment was not performed in clinical practice, it demonstrates that the Rediroom does not present a barrier to cleaning in principle.

References

1. Mitchell BG, Williams A, Wong Z. Assessing the functionality of temporary isolation rooms. Am J Infect Control 2017; 45: 1231-7.
2. Mitchell BG, Williams A, Wong Z, O'Connor J. Assessing a temporary isolation room from an infection control perspective: A discussion paper. Infection, Disease & Health 2017; 22: 129-35.