Upgrading tired and poorly optimised sluice rooms is essential to keep your staff and patients safe. In fact, some of the latest benefits might surprise you…

Investing in upgraded sluice rooms is often crucial to ensure optimal hygiene, operational effectiveness, and improved patient outcomes in care homes and hospitals. Although a well-maintained sluice room can offer around 25 years of reliable service, they aren’t indestructible or everlasting, so it’s inevitable that your sluice room will need improvements at some point in time.

Unfortunately, deferring the process can be costly in terms of safety and functionality.

The tell-tale signs that a refurbishment is due include outdated or malfunctioning machinery, inefficient workflows, hygiene concerns, non-compliance with regulations and poor staff feedback. None of these factors can be ignored.

When armed with the knowledge that your sluice room isn’t performing as well as it should, you may well have a wish list of new equipment that you feel should be included in the refurbishment – but it’s very possible that there’s some innovations that you aren’t familiar with, too.

Here’s three hidden heroes of sluice room refurbishment which may be flying under your radar…

1. UV Air Purifiers

A UV air purifier is a device designed to improve indoor air quality by using ultraviolet (UV) light to kill or deactivate airborne pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and mold spores.

UV air purifiers typically consist of a UV-C lamp that emits short-wavelength ultraviolet light - specifically UV-C light - which has germicidal properties. When air passes through the purifier, the UV-C light targets and damages the genetic material of microorganisms, rendering them unable to reproduce and causing their destruction.

Integrating a UV air purifier in a sluice room can provide several benefits:

Enhanced infection control. UV air purifiers help to disinfect the air and therefore minimise the risk of cross-contamination and airborne transmission of infections.

Improved air quality. Sluice rooms often handle medical waste and potentially odorous substances. A UV air purifier can help reduce unpleasant odours by neutralising odour-causing particles and gases present in the air.

Enhanced cleaning protocols. While regular cleaning and disinfection are vital in sluice rooms, airborne pathogens may still persist. UV air purifiers provide an additional layer of protection by continuously disinfecting the air, complementing the existing cleaning protocols and enhancing overall hygiene practices in the room.

DISCOVER THE UVMATIC & UVMATIC PLUS AIR PURIFICATION SYSTEMS

2. Chemical Alarm Monitoring Systems

When refurbishing your sluice room, you’ll no doubt consider the most effective bedpan washer disinfector or medical pulp macerator to suit your needs. These are, of course, essential – but the chemical monitoring associated with these machines is, regrettably, often an afterthought.

A sluice machine left to run without chemicals will not only damage its service life, but its ability to fight HCAIs, too. Although bedpan washer disinfectors and macerators will continue to function without additional chemicals, they won’t perform at their optimum – which will ultimately impact their efficiency.

A chemical alarm monitoring system will…

Remove the guesswork of when to replace the chemicals in a sluice machine
Provide an audio and visual warning when the bottle is empty
Help to ensure your machine is kept clean and working at its best.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE DDC DOLPHIN CHEMICAL ALARM MONITORING SYSTEM

3. UVC Water Traps

When it comes to washing dirty hands and utensils, you might consider wastewater to be out of sight and out of mind once it flows down the drain. However, sink water traps can be a breeding ground for lethal MDR bacteria – and if the water flow is restricted, biofilm-forming bacteria may create stable reservoirs in waste pipes and semi-horizontal drainpipes.

It doesn’t stop there. Bacteria that form in one water trap or wastepipe can easily spread to other nearby sinks, creating a rapidly growing health risk in your facility.

DDC Dolphin’s clinically tested new UVC Water Trap Disinfector sanitises the water in sink waste pipes – killing bacteria and preventing biofilm formulation.

The UVC Water Trap Disinfector eliminates multi-drug resistant:

Carbapenemase-producing organisms (CPO)
Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE)
Bacteria that produce Extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL).

By tackling the problem at its source, the UVC Water Trap Disinfector reliably kills bacteria and prevents biofilms from developing in the first instance. As a result, wastepipes are fully sanitised – and better still, this cost-effective technology consumes as little as 12w of energy per hour, is easy to fit and requires very little maintenance.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE DDC DOLPHIN UVC WATER TRAP DISINFECTOR

If you’re considering a sluice room refurbishment but aren’t sure where to start, DDC Dolphin are here to help. We are the only infection control equipment manufacturer able to also offer a full turnkey service for sluice room refurbishments.

The initial consultation and design survey is free, so why not get in touch to see how we can assist?

GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SLUICE ROOM REFURBISHMENTS FROM DDC DOLPHIN

Have a question?

GET IN TOUCH WITH OUR EXPERT TEAM