RIDGELAND, Miss. — July 30, 2014 — Medical Grade Innovations, (MGI) a subsidiary of R&T Fabric, LLC today announced the launch of its introductory line of healthcare professional attire through the company’s new website and online store www.medicalgradeinnovations.com. The initial product offering, the Medical Grade Scrub, is a bacteriostatic (stops the reproduction of bacteria), moisture wicking, odor repellant, and stain resistant scrub made from Milliken’s VisaEndurance® fabric.
Murray Cohen, PhD, MPH, CIH, president of MGI’s Science and Technology division, believes utilizing more functional garments and textiles in combination with unique systems for processing, usage, and data collection, may help one day contain some of the pathogen burden within healthcare facilities. Cohen is a retired U.S. Public Health Officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and international expert on hospital safety.
“We are living in a time of increased microbial resistance with an alarming 1 in 25 patients contracting an infection during a hospital stay,” said MGI Science & Technology President, Murray Cohen, PhD, MPH, CIH. “Hospitals are increasingly aware and, moreover, incentivized to reduce the occurrence of hospital acquired infections, but much can be done at the level of the individual practitioner. Today’s release of Medical Grade Scrub is a first step toward providing healthcare professionals with another level of protection for them and their patients.”
The Medical Grade Scrub remains 99.9% durably bacteriostatic against Staphylococcus Aureus and Klebsiella after 50 washings, as shown in AATCC Method 100 lab testing, and utilizes silver ion technology, which activates when in it comes in contact with the sodium in human perspiration. Bacteria in sweat take up the silver ions, which keep them from reproducing.
The Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) recently acknowledged the lack of oversight on any regulated practices for healthcare professional attire and patient attire in a guidance published in February 2014’s Infection Control and Epidemiology.1 The SHEA guidance stated that healthcare professional attire should take into account a balance of professional appearance, comfort, and practicality with the potential role of apparel in the cross-transmission of pathogens.
One of the fundamental issues facing health care professionals who wash their work garments at home is that their washing machines cannot reach the temperatures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention2 (CDC) to correctly wash contaminated fabric. Home washers are set at 120 degrees per the Department of Energy’s3 guidelines and the CDC recommend hospitals wash possibly contaminated linen at 165 degrees for 20 minutes. This creates the potential to reintroduce contaminated garments into and out of the hospital each day, and demonstrates the need for garments that can be correctly washed at home.
“Our team has 50 years of experience innovating new fabrics and technologies for a variety of industries. With the current national focus on improving healthcare, it made strategic sense for it to be our focus as well,” said MGI CEO, Bert Rubinsky. “In the near future, these fabrics will act as a key component to multi-faceted programs, which with the help of Dr. Cohen, will address workplace, patient, environmental, and community safety issues.”
1 Bearman, G., Bryant, K., Leekha, S., Mayer, J., Munoz-Price, L.S., Murthy, R., Palmore, T., Rupp, M., White, J. “Expert Guidance: Healthcare Personnel Attire in Non-Operating Room Settings.” Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 35:2 (February 2014)
2 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5210a1.htm, Accessed July 17, 2014
3 http://energy.gov/energysaver/projects/savings-project-lower-water-heating-temperature, Accessed July 17, 2014
Posted August 5, 2014
Source: Medical Grade Innovations
