As hospitals and medical centers continue to experience high volumes of patients, it remains critical for practitioners to implement solutions aimed at protecting those most vulnerable. Medical safety and isolation barriers are a core component of keeping patients safe and minimizing the spread of airborne pathogens by physically separating individuals within waiting rooms and isolating sick patients from those that are healthy. These barrier solutions can take on many forms, from simple single pane and double pane plastic barriers (typically polycarbonate or clear sheet acrylic material – commonly referred to as “plexiglass”), to fabricated intubation housings and isolation cubicles. Plastic materials are ideally suited for use in these applications due to the wide variety of material characteristics offered by many plastic substrates including chemical resistances, anti-scratch/graffiti protection, anti-microbial properties and more.
Benefits of Medical Safety Barriers
Many common forms of infectious disease are spread through respiratory droplets, and recent studies have shown that this is the primary method by which Covid-19 is spread from person to person. Medical safety barriers allow hospitals and doctors’ offices to designate specific areas within their facilities for infectious or potentially infectious patients in order to keep them distanced from healthy patients. These barriers can be made clear in applications where visibility is a necessity, or opaque if privacy is of concern. Barriers made from plastic materials are highly durable and can be cleaned/disinfected using many common cleaners, while some substrates can withstand even the harshest cleaners used for cleaning sanitary medical surfaces.
Medical Barrier Products
Piedmont Plastics is proud to offer a wide range of substrates that can be used for barrier applications depending on the specific application’s requirements. Some commonly used products include:
The materials listed above are not the only materials that may be used for barrier applications but represent the more common substrates due to the great differences in both physical appearance and technical properties of each respective material. As a result, these materials reduce the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19 tremendously and can be found in a variety of medical applications. However, there are many other industries that benefit from barrier solutions as well. Some of these barrier and safety applications include:
- Building and Construction
- Food Processing and Handling
- Materials Handling and Conveying
- Recreation
- Medical Equipment
- Transportation
Contact Us
At Piedmont Plastics, we stand ready to serve the needs of our customers and local communities. We have invested in and planned for consistent availability of materials across our coast-to-coast, 48 branch network of distribution facilities, and are prepared to work within any timeline you need. Contact us today to inquire more about how our superior plastic materials can serve you.