With a lack of side rooms available in many hospitals across the NHS, outbreaks of non-airborne infections including MRSA and Norovirus can prove a costly problem.
Generally, infected patients do not need to be placed in side rooms and only require a physical barrier between bed spaces to prevent transmission through droplets.
The KwickScreen provides both a physical barrier around the infected patient and a psychological trigger that has been proven to improve hand hygiene compliance.
KwickScreen was the brainchild of Michael Korn, an entrepreneur from East Finchley, North London. The creation won him the coveted title of Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011, and the Award for Best Technology for Improving Productivity at the 2012 Building Better Healthcare Awards.
Events such as the BBH Awards give you that credibility in the market place and help you to get your products into trusts, so we are pleased to be involved
Since its success at the BBH Awards, KwickScreen has been supporting the annual event, with a stand showing off the latest innovations in the champagne reception area at the ceremony, which this year will be held on 5 November in central London.
Speaking about its partnership with the awards, sales director, Andrew Spiers, said: “A huge thing for manufacturers in this sector is to get people using their products. If they love it then they recommend it to other people, and word spreads. Events such as the BBH Awards give you that credibility in the market place and help you to get your products into trusts, so we are pleased to be involved.”
KwickScreen was designed as a way to help healthcare professionals isolate patients who are known to have, or are at risk of, an infection.
But, more recently, the Department of Health has introduced privacy and dignity regulations which fine hospitals for housing patients of the opposite sex together. As a result, KwickScreen has found a new role; helping to screen patients and create single-sex, separate sleeping areas within multi-bedded wards.
This ability to take a product and increase its use is also vital to success within the marketplace, said Spiers.
“It took us three years to break into the NHS and that is pretty quick,” he added. “That is why events like the awards are so good, as they give you the credibility, but also help you to network.
“Being adaptable is important, too. We originally designed KwickScreen for infection prevention, but now it is just as popular a tool for enhancing privacy and dignity. We have also started to print designs onto the screens to make them more suitable for specific environments, such as maternity units and paediatric wings. These are hugely popular, with most trusts opting for printed designs as a way of bringing art and colour into ward spaces to enhance their patients’ hospital experience.”
We have been lucky in that we have designed a product that meets a key challenge within the healthcare industry and have managed to get it into trusts relatively quickly, seeing a meteoric rise in the number of screens sold
KwickScreen was developed as part of the Smart Ideas initiative, itself part of the Department of Health’s HCAI Technology Innovation Programme, set up in 2008 to speed up the development and adaptation of technologies that can help to combat HCAIs. It uses a patented high-tech rollable material technology that enables it to be incredibly retractable and portable. RolaTube is a new British technology used across many sectors including Nasa.
KwickScreen’s prototype was trialled at University College Hospital London in 2009, where improvements in hand hygiene compliance were observed, alongside the ease of use and cleaning of the KwickScreen.
KwickScreen works with Teal Furniture, an innovative solutions provider of healthcare products, to supply hospitals in the UK and further afield. The relationship with Teal has facilitated the growth of sales and introduced the KwickScreen to many new trusts and departments.
Spiers said: “We have been lucky in that we have designed a product that meets a key challenge within the healthcare industry and have managed to get it into trusts relatively quickly, seeing a meteoric rise in the number of screens sold.
“We are now looking forward to hearing about the latest innovations that will be entered into this year’s BBH Awards.”
