PULLMAN, Wash.—Pullman Re-gional Hospital, a level IV trauma center, says it has installed copper components throughout its facility as another way of reducing hospital-acquired infections and keeping patients safe.

It says it has become an early adopter of antimicrobial copper after studies found that the age-old metal could continuously kill deadly bacteria.  

Each year, 2 million people in the United States are diagnosed with a hospital-acquired infection, and nearly 100,000 people die. These infections are caused by common bacteria such as E. coli, MRSA, C. diff, CRE and VRE.

“It is a very serious problem,” says Ed Harrich, the hospital’s director of surgical services, in a press release describing the project. “I think every hospital across the nation is doing everything they can to try to deal with it the best that they can. But there’s ‘bioburden’ on everything and people aren’t good at hand-washing and there’s cross-contamination everywhere you go.”

Pullman Regional Hospital consists of a 95,000-square-foot trauma center with 25 patient beds, three operating rooms, and a 24-hour emergency department, serving the Palouse region of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho.

Through a Patient Safety Challenge grant administered by the Copper Development Association, the hospital was able to purchase and install copper hardware such as faucet levers on 40 sinks in the public restrooms found in patient rooms and hallway basins; handles for the IV poles used in its birthing center, intensive care unit, and medical surgery unit; and handicapped-access buttons for double doors. 

Adam Estelle, a project engineer with the Copper Development Association, says in the press release, “By replacing the most touched surfaces in the hospital, Pullman is making an easy change to ensure their patient’s safety and satisfaction. Bacteria can spread rapidly even in the most sterile locations where hand-washing and surface disinfection are common practices. The beauty of copper touch surfaces is that they do not require any special cleaning, are safe to use and provide protection 24/7.”

In 2008, an intensive U.S. study funded by the Department of Defense was launched to investigate the effectiveness of antimicrobial copper. The study conducted inside the intensive care units of three U.S. hospitals proved that copper touch surfaces continuously reduced harmful bacteria and also reduced health care-acquired infection rates by 58 percent, the press release says. 

While the materials used for touch surfaces are often overlooked as opportunities to improve patient safety during the hospital design process, installing copper adds another layer of infection prevention into the facility, it says Antimicrobial copper products are highly durable and can last for decades. Retrofitting a hospital with antimicrobial copper is an investment in patient safety with long-term benefits that far outweigh the upfront costs, the release says.

Today more than two dozen U.S. manufacturers are producing antimicrobial copper components—everything from door handles, stair handrails, grab bars, to sinks, carts and specialty instrument trays. With several different copper alloys to choose from, products can exhibit the warm tones of brushed nickel, the colder white of stainless steel, the warm yellows of brass and bronze, or the traditional red of copper.

Pullman Regional Hospital says it plans to install more than 420 copper cabinet pulls throughout the hospital in the coming weeks and months.  Eventually, it says, the administration would like to add countertops, chair armrests, bed rails and bed handles made of copper.

“We’re excited,” says Jeannie Eylar, a registered nurse and the hospital’s chief clinical officer, in the press release. “We feel like we’re on the right path … and we feel like copper is helping us achieve the outcome that we want.”

The Copper Development Association is the market development, engineering and information services arm of the copper industry, chartered to enhance and expand markets for copper and its alloys in North America. 

Electronic medical records

Separately, the Pullman hospital says it recently completed what’s called Meaningful Use Stage 2 Attestation, an achievement that puts it among a minority of hospitals nationwide in the adoption of electronic medical records.

Meaningful Use pertains to specific objectives that eligible hospitals and professionals must achieve to qualify for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services programs designed to improve quality of care, the hospital says in a press release. According to national data, only 840 hospitals out of nearly 4,400 active registered facilities have completed Stage 2 requirements, it says.

That stage focuses on incorporating electronic medical recordkeeping into advanced clinical practices, the hospital says. In addition, one of its objectives is to provide patients the ability to view online, download, and transmit information about a hospital admission.

The hospital must show that more than 50 percent of all patients who are discharged from inpatient care or the emergency department have their information available online within 36 hours of discharge. Another Stage 2 measurement hospitals must achieve is to have more than 5 percent of those patients access their records through a patient portal on the hospital’s website.

Cathy Murphy, a registered nurse and the hospital’s director of clinical informatics, says in the news release that achieving that 5 percent of patients who actually access the patient portal was the biggest challenge.

“We formed a patient portal team to develop a plan on how we can educate patients about the new portal and its benefits,” Murphy says, adding, “We worked with staff to be our advocates for enrolling patients and to support them through their first long on to the patient portal.”

Meaningful Use stages one and two include about 20 measurements of clinical and patient compliance that must be achieved and maintained before Stage 3 objectives and requirements are announced, the hospital says. The standards include maintaining 60 percent clinician electronic order entry by computer, it says.

Optimistic about achieving ongoing success in that electronic shift, Murphy says, “We are small, responsive, and have great support from INHS.”

INHS, which stands for Inland Northwest Health Services, is the big Spokane-based organization that operates St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute, Northwest MedStar, and other health-care entities and also offers support services. It employs more than 1,000 people and last year had gross revenues of more than $200 million.