St John's Care Facility, Canada
Eastern Health is the largest integrated health organization in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. They provide the full continuum of health services to a regional population of more than 300,000 and are responsible for a number of unique provincial programs. They employ over 13,000 healthcare and support services professionals and believe in providing the best quality of care and health service delivery in their region and in the province. Eastern Health extends west from St. John's to Port Blandford and includes all communities on the Avalon, Burin and Bonavista Peninsulas.
The Challenge
To coincide with the opening of the brand-new St John’s long-term care facility, the decision was made to ensure that the new buildings had sluice rooms fitted out with macerators rather than the traditional washer disinfectors.
The Solution
They decided to tender the supply of macerators and during the submissions process there was a thorough analysis of all the major manufacturers of macerators. DDC Dolphin, through its unique combination of totally hands-free operation and the nine-bladed maceration system, was chosen as the perfect solution. Medical Mart, our distribution partner for Canada, therefore provided the winning bid.
The Outcome
“From an Infection Prevention & Control perspective, I have experienced the use of DDC Dolphin macerators in our long-term care facilities. The system is very simple to use and provides a clean, green resource for disposal of human waste utensils. The macerators help to prevent any cross-contamination during outbreaks and staff really like the fact that they do not have to perform any pre-cleaning that could expose them to organisms such as C. difficile.
Staff find it very beneficial that this system is completely handsfree, decreasing the risk for transmission of microorganisms. We had a Norovirus outbreak on this unit recently and compared to last year with no macerator available on this unit, the population affected was much lower.”
Ann Marie Penney, Infection Control Practitioner, Eastern Health, Canada
