Antimicrobial Plumbing Solutions

With the spread of COVID-19, many individuals and organizations are evaluating options for limiting the spread of pathogens and bacteria in their places of work, play, and residence. Because our team supplies and advises facilities across a range of industries, including healthcare facilities, we’re able to apply leading-edge solutions from one industry to another.

In this series, we’ll explore some of the standards and protocols implemented in the medical facilities we work with, which may be applied in schools, office facilities, or residential buildings to reduce the spread of viruses. To help us understand this topic, we’ve asked Larry Farley, Chris Schroeder, and Mike McLeod, three of our technical sales consultants, for help.

“The medical facilities we work with are very clean,” says Chris, “you never see them dirty. That doesn’t just happen by accident. There are norms and protocols that lead to healthcare facilities limiting the spread of bacteria and viruses.”

“Facility maintenance teams in hospitals are focused on being proactive,” says Mike. “What that means is they are creating preventative maintenance schedules so that they make sure that they are correcting things before they become a problem.”

Helping Your Facility Fight Viruses

We know that many of our customers are concerned about COVID-19 specifically, but we want to remind you that ensuring that your facility meets anti-microbial standards is about more than one virus. As with SARS, MERS, and other viral epidemics, we see a brief uptick in preventative measures during a period of scare. What is necessary though, is not a one-time expense, but rather long-term planning and protocols to maintain your building’s safety through all situations.

“This is not a one-time pandemic kind of thing, where this one virus passes, and then the threat is gone,” says Larry. “You need to create systems and standards so that your facility will be constantly fighting possible pathogen infections.”

In this series, we’ll walk through how to evaluate your facility’s touchpoints, faucet outlets, standing water, air quality, water temperature, and filtration to identify where the current risks are. As we walk through each topic, we’ll highlight a few solutions we’ve seen work well in the healthcare facilities we support. Then, we’ll share how to approach updating your system and developing a Performance & Maintenance Plan to continue limiting the spread of microbes and bacteria in your building.