Why Adopt The System
The Key Benefits
Four Core Important Factors
Four Core Important Factors
The Vernacare System has four key benefits which convince hospitals throughout the world to adopt this best practice model of human waste management.
Infection Control is a key healthcare concern and has grown in profile and influence over recent years. Increasingly, legal governance requires healthcare providers to report Hospital Acquired Infection (HAI) rates and Infection Control now benefits from substantial global investment from healthcare providers.
In the UK, HAI's are estimated to cost the NHS £1bn per annum and result in 20,000 deaths per year (source: HC230 - The management and control of HAI in Acute NHS Trusts in England).
In the US, 2 million Americans per year are infected with HAIs, resulting in 88,000 deaths, costing healthcare providers $6 billion (source: CDC).
Vernacare's single-use, disposable pulp receptacles reduce the risk of cross-infection associated with alternative re-usable receptacles, be they washed by hand or in a washer-disinfector.
Environmental performance is the second most important driver for the Vernacare system, which is highly sustainable. Vernacare pulp is, by nature, an environmentally friendly product since the raw material is recycled over-issue news print. When macerated, the used pulp is disintegrated into minute, biodegradable fragments that wash down the drain with the waste water. .
A Vernacare macerator uses cold water, and significantly less electricity to process the pulp than than traditional bedpan washers, or hand-washing. Unlike these methods of cleaning re-usable receptacles, the Vernacare macerator uses no detergents or chemicals.
The Vernacare System is clearly a much 'greener' alternative to processing re-usable plastic receptacles, or worse, sending millions of disposable plastic receptacles to landfill.
Saving Nurses Time was the original driver behind development of the Vernacare System in the 1960s, and remains an important factor today in releasing more time for patient care. As nurses are increasingly more highly trained and skilled, it is important that their time is spent more effectively on value adding, patient focused activities.
Cost is increasingly important as public sector funding is squeezed and competitive pressures in independent hospitals means that spend must be controlled very carefully and value for money ensured.
Detailed costing comparisons prove that the Vernacare System is less expensive to run than the traditional re-usable receptacles and washer/disinfector system..
The comparison takes into account the purchase cost of the units, running/utility costs, cost of nurses' time and maintenance costs for both methods, and demonstrates significant savings when the Vernacare System is adopted.
The cost of reducing HAIs and ultimately saving lives cannot be quantified…
