I recieved this email, anyone care to respond?

Ms. Stroupe:
I am a free-lance writer with Health Facilities Management (published by the
American Hospital Association)....and found your name on the AAHID Web site.

I am working on an article on mold-resistant interior surfaces in hospitals, and
was hoping I could speak to a designer specializing in health care for some
information on this topic. Would you be available to do a phone interview
sometime in the next few days? Or, if you like, I can e-mail you the questions,
and you can answer that way.

Please let me know

Thanks very much

Beth Burmahl

Jocelyn,

These are some products I am researching:

1.  Copper is a natural anti-microbial metal, so we are seeing it used in labs and cancer centers for door/drawer pulls. 
2.  Linoleum, unsealed of course, is naturally antimicrobial due to the linseed oils, but most of our clients put a sealer on it, reducing the characteristics of preventing growth of microbes.

Also, you may want to look at Microban, AEGIS and Bioshield. 

Finally there are paint additives such as Brand M-1 Advanced Mildewcide Paint Additive.

There are also a few factual pieces on mold which are available in the media archives on this website. 

Linda Gabel, AAHID, IIDA Senior Associate

Hi JStroupe,

My research focuses on infection control and surfaces in healthcare facilities. I would be happy to speak with you regarding this topic. I may be contacted at:
Debra D. Harris, Ph.D.
512.853.9138

Does anyone have any experience with Zolatone?

Hi Lew -

Yes, and it has been mixed.  A few comments for consideration:

1.  The first application typically goes well with a qualified installer.  The issue of maintenance and touchup depends upon the complexity of the pattern and color.  Many healthcare facilities are not prepared to buy the spray equipment to do ongoing spray repair if this is installed in a wear area.  If it is protected, say behind a reception desk or in a waiting area with wall saver type seating, then not really an issue.  The touch up with the Q-tip method really is not effective or practical for HC facilities due to the level of wall damage seen - glancing blows can scrape off the spatter. 
2.  You can apply a protective top coat to reduce wear and tear.
3.  Some of the citrus-based cleaners will actually strip Zolatone off of the walls and surfaces.  I had this happen in a children’s hospital that was using all green cleaning products, and the area with Zolatone was in a protected area.  The cleaner literally stripped off the finish!
Now this was a few years ago, so they may have reformulated the mix to prevent this from happening....
4.  I would not recommend it over ceramic wall tile - scuff master is much more durable if you are coating existing surfaces in a low budget renovation. 

I have only seen one hospital really work well with it, and they sprayed all walls and door frames with it, and basically the same color.  Their maintenance folks were trained and really liked the ease of patch and spray.  I think it was Dallas Children’s?

Linda

Regarding zolatone - I’ve used it periodically (not in the past few years)
but more so in previous years and to greater/lesser degrees of success.

In the early years, we used zolatone and found that the chemicals used
were not environmentally friendly and there was a fair amount of down time
and patient/staff relocations that were necessary.

Then polomyx (water based) paints, which is manufactured by the same company,
but came out with both a water based and traditional options and had almost the
same options of color and patterning came on board and we were back specifying
them again.  Seems to have less odor and less down time.

We still have the current catalogue for both zolatone and polomyx in our interiors
library and in checking it out, there are not water based versions of both.  I’m not
sure how the current options differ from the earlier ones.

Linda is right in the maintenance issues - one of our hospital clients decided to
“buy into” the whole process and use polomyx in many public areas as well
as puirchased the spray guns, extra gallons of paint and trained their EVS
staff on how to make repairs.  It looks pretty good still.

One other thing to remember in the repair/maintenance is that unless the staff
is well trained in the spraying technique, the amount of “specs"/dots that shoots
out will be closer or farther apart in spacing and not match the original appearance -
we had that problem, too.

We’ve had repeat work at this hospital and you can tell if it was repaired
well or haphazardly.  When done right, the finished initial and repair effects
are very good and when you cannot or should not use wallcovering, it’s a nice
(not necessarily inexpensive) solution to use.

Karen

I was researching the mold issue and came across this pretty good summary. 

Its available here:  http://www.aahid.org/pdf/AIHAreportControllingHAInfections.pdf

Any additional comments?

Good article, Linda.

This discussion seems to be at the forefront of most of my current HC projects.
The construction issues are one thing. 
The other issue is how to classify inpatients and outpatient populations.
What effect does the rising level of acuity have on our treatment of inpatient spaces and the furnishings/upholstery that we use?
Outpatient Cancer centers are becoming prevalent and treat some pretty immunosupressed patients – we can’t really consider these as we would a standard outpatient population…but how far to carry the safeguards?

CDC guidelines refer to “high risk” and immunocompromised patients in an inpatient facility, but some of these descriptions can be carried over.

Any other good articles on the subject?

Margie Snow, AAHID, ASID, IIDA, LEED AP