July CHD CHER Update
The CHD Coalition for Health Environments Research (CHER) has been busy these past few months. Here’s an update:
Presentations
CHD CHER Committee Members Jane Rohde, AIA, IIDA, NCARB (President, JSR Associates, Inc.) and Roger Leib, AIA, ACHA (President, Leib & Leib) presented “CHER: Exploring the Evidence” at NeoCon on June 12th in Chicago, IL. Jane and Roger gave an overview of some of the CHD CHER reports, including the most recent, ” Limiting the Spread of Infection in the Health Care Environment“.
The objective of this study was to investigate the ability of upholstery, wall finishes, and floor finishes to harbor microorganisms before and after cleaning, and to evaluate the possible microbe transmission by healthcare providers. The principal investigators (Mary G. Lankford, Susan Collins, Larry Youngberg, Denise Rooney of Northwestern Memorial Hospital and John Warren and Gary Noskin of The Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University) of this study suggest that manufacturers test their products with typical hospital cleaning methods.
They recommend starting this evaluation process through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP). You can view a full report on “Guidelines for Environmental Infection Control in Healthcare Facilities” on the CDC website. We encourage manufacturers to collaborate with the design and research community to re-evaluate their products.
Coming Soon
The latest CHD CHER report to be produced is coming soon! Look for “The Effect of Environmental Design on Reducing Nursing & Medication Errors in Acute Care Settings” to be posted on CHD’s website. The investigators of this study (Habib Chaudhury of Simon Fraser University and Atiya Mahmood of Oregon State University) examined the issue of errors in medical-surgical units through a literature review, a nursing survey, focus groups and site visits.
To read more about other upcoming reports and activities for CHD’s CHER Members, visit our website.