Steel cleanliness and environmental metallurgy

Monitoring environmental cleanliness on two surgical wards.

Ten hand-touch sites were screened weekly on two surgical wards over two consecutive six-month periods. The results were analysed using hygiene standards, which specify (i) an aerobic colony count (ACC) > 2.5 cfu/cm(2), and (ii) presence of coagulase-positive staphylococci, as hygiene failures. Sites most often failing the standards were beds and hoist (64%: 33 of 52 weeks), bedside lockers (62...

Compressibility of 304 Stainless Steel Powder Metallurgy Materials Reinforced with 304 Short Stainless Steel Fibers

Powder metallurgy (P/M) technique is usually used for manufacturing porous metal materials. However, some P/M materials are limitedly used in engineering for their performance deficiency. A novel 304 stainless steel P/M material was produced by a solid-state sintering of 304 stainless steel powders and 304 short stainless steel fibers, which were alternately laid in layers according to mass rat...

Environmental hygiene in the operating room: cleanliness, godliness, and reality.

Cleanliness becomes more important when godliness is unlikely (P.J. O’Rourke). “Environment” is defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary as “the surroundings or conditions in which a person lives or operates,” whereas hygiene is defined as “conditions or practices conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease, especially through cleanliness.” Cleanliness is the state of being free...

Senile breakdown in standards of personal and environmental cleanliness.

The impact of environmental cleanliness on infection rates.

Much has been said in recent years about the lack of environmental cleanliness in hospitals. The House of Lords Select Committee (1998) talked about falling standards in hospital cleaning and, more recently, the government acknowledged in The NHS Plan (Department of Health, 2000) that hospitals were unacceptably dirty. Such comments may affect people's perceptions of hospitals and, rather than ...