If healthcare was unregulated, nimble entrepreneurs could make quick use of the findings summarized below. In our sclerotic hyper-regulated healthcare system, healthcare workers have neither the incentives nor the decision rights to make use of them.
(p. D6) Researchers equipped nine rooms in a small rural hospital with copper faucet handles, toilet flush levers, door handles, light switches and other commonly touched equipment. They left nine other rooms with traditional plastic, porcelain and metal surfaces.
. . .
. . . on average, fixtures in copper-equipped rooms had concentrations of bacteria about 98 percent lower than in rooms furnished with traditional equipment, whether the rooms were occupied or not. On half of the copper components, the researchers were unable to grow any bacteria at all.
“Copper in hospital rooms is not yet common,” said the lead author, Shannon M. Hinsa-Leasure, an associate professor of biology at Grinnell College in Iowa.
For the full story see:
(Note: ellipses added.)
(Note: the online version of the story has the date Oct. 4, 2016 [sic], and has the title “Copper Sinks and Faucets May Stem Hospital Infections.”)
The academic paper reporting the results summarized above is: