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by muxxa
4299 days ago
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The handles on inward opening doors are a vector for bacteria because there is no way of physically interacting with them without using your hands and touching the same place as everyone else. This product does not solve this problem, but instead tries to insert itself into the users' task flow at precisely the time when their goals are focused elsewhere (on opening the door). This is a rude interruption and will likely annoy rather than encourage more sanitization.
In the video (0:59), a woman sanitizes her hands then must immediately compromise them again to actually open the door. I'd prefer to see a handle designed for safe operation by the elbows or feet so that the hands don't need to be compromised. Think of how a surgeon enters an operating room by pushing the door with their shoulder and their hands held up out of the way. |
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I have never in my life seen so many motion sensor things from doors to sinks, so many sanitizer dispensers, reminders to sanitize things like keyboards/mice, and reminders/opportunities to get personal protective equipment. Like, not even at other hospitals. While he was in the ICU especially, you could tell: there was a bin for soiled linens, a bin for trash.... then a bin that was basically only used for dirty paper towels right after washing your hands because it's right next to the sink right next to the door (and sometimes there were multiple sinks in a single private room...), and usually another bin for used gowns/masks/gloves next to that since one trash bin generally wasn't enough even if it was emptied 2-3 times a day.
The dispensers especially were all over the place in your face at regular intervals in every area and at all room entrances/exits and then some, so you had no excuse not to use it (hello random visitor who told me to not push elevator buttons with my fingers because "it's a hospital and ewww germs!") While I know part of the reason for this door handle design was because people forget to use sanitizer even though they know better... even super harried ED and ICU staff were using them because it was so fast and stick-your-arm-out-in-a-second-while-leaving convenient. I don't think I saw someone _not_ do that.
I think the solution to this problem is not a door handle, but to design a hospital around this idea in the first place with the assumption that we forget - a lot of this can be retrofitted with great success.