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Our commitment to resource-efficient privacy and sustainable healthcare [Video]

Silentia global headquarters in Falkenberg, Sweden

As our planet experiences unprecedented shifts in climate patterns, the healthcare sector faces unique challenges in adapting to and mitigating the consequences of these changes. For hospitals, working with sustainability is a twofold challenge, as the industry is a major contributor to issues of waste and consumption.

As resource efficiency becomes a critical focus of the healthcare industry, Silentia remains committed to supporting hospitals with future-proof patient privacy.

 

The challenge of sustainability in healthcare

According to recent studies, US hospitals generate over 29 pounds of waste per bed per day (Practice Greenhealth, 2023), reaching a total of 7000 tons of solid waste per day nationally (STATnews, 2018). Globally, in many countries around the world, health systems account for 5%-10% of carbon emissions.

“There has been a perception in the sector that green initiatives are costly, but you’re choosing to eliminate waste, and waste is usually associated with cost,” says Matthew Meyer, University of Virginia (Bloomberg, 2022).

Considering the environmental impact of waste from the healthcare sector, hospitals must adopt a proactive approach to mitigate the effects. There are two key factors toward a more sustainable future: energy conservation and conscientious use of materials. By reducing energy and material resources and ongoing costs to use and upkeep them, hospitals will see key environmental and financial advantages.

This calls for innovative and proven products designed to advance the transition from short-termism to long-term solutions. This is at the core of ensuring a more resilient healthcare system.

Supporting sustainable healthcare through resource-efficiency

At Silentia, we welcome the increased attentiveness towards climate-friendly products and initiatives. For more than 30 years, Silentia has been committed to supplying hospitals with future-proof patient privacy.

For many of our customers, the emphasis has been, and still is, to replace privacy curtains to improve hygiene and prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). However, our customers are also seeing the environmental benefits of replacing curtains, which require significant resources and yield significant waste during their use phase.

Silentia screens have a proven lifetime of more than 10 years, eliminating the ongoing logistics, labor, and recurrent waste associated with exchanging and laundering curtains over that time. Thus, as we reaffirm our commitment to resource-efficient solutions and continue to improve the quality and lifetime of our screen system, our customers’ total cost of ownership will continue to decrease, and environmental benefits will continue to increase.

To achieve this, we have established five eco-design principles, which solidify our commitment to and accountability for products that will support resource efficiency and our customers’ sustainability efforts.

Hygiene: Design that optimizes infection prevention and control.

Safety: Stable, reliable, and user-friendly products.

Durability: Products built to last with a proven lifetime of 10+ years.

Reusability: Products with modular, compatible design, able to be reinstalled.

Repairability: Minimal design and materials that allow for easy maintenance locally.

Going forward, we will share more cases where our screen system has helped hospitals and clinics around the world improve their resource efficiency and provide better care. Moreover, as a company, we will move forward with an increased focus on ESG reporting and collaboration with our suppliers. Stay tuned for more!

Want to know more about our commitment to a more sustainable future of healthcare? Check out these resources:

Sustainability page: Read about our approach to resource-efficient patient privacy solutions.
Case story: Explore the sustainable and economic benefits of a screen recycling project at Gødstrup Hospital.
Total cost of ownership: Get insights on calculating TCO by comparing privacy screens and cubicle curtains.
Connect with our team or directly with our sustainability specialist, Jonas Fribo, at jonas@silentia.se.

Privacy solutions for infusion therapy: Delivering dignity in patient care

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Infusion therapy is a critical pillar of modern healthcare for treating some of the most challenging medical conditions our communities face today. Privacy screens are an essential element in providing quality care and maintaining a patient-centered approach.

Infusion centers and in-hospital infusion departments provide a controlled environment for infusion therapy and offer the necessary expertise and resources to ensure the safety and well-being of patients undergoing treatment. Patient privacy is of utmost importance in these environments, and Silentia privacy screens are emerging as indispensable assets for elevating the standard of dignified patient care.

Infusion care is designed to prioritize comfort and safety, as patients receiving infusion therapy often experience chronic pain, discomfort, and feelings of vulnerability. Privacy screens offer nurses a valuable tool in creating adaptable, private spaces that address these challenges. They are versatile, lightweight, and easy to use, which allows caregivers to easily maneuver and adjust them to provide privacy for patients while maintaining oversight of monitors and equipment. They are also easy to clean, in place, and with common cleaning materials, which encourages a cleaner and more hygienic environment.

Silentia privacy screen solutions come in a variety of designs, allowing you to choose options that complement the overall aesthetic and workflow of the care area, contributing to a positive atmosphere for patients.

No two healthcare spaces are the same, yet the need for a patient-oriented privacy solution is always a critical part of quality care. Gain some inspiration from the examples below of in-hospital and outpatient infusion center projects from around the country.

Hospital infusion centers

 

 

 

A 13-bay infusion area with wall-mounted folding screens to provide better hygiene and privacy for seated patients.

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Each screen features a PhotoPanels image on the patient-facing side to provide patients with a calming visual experience.

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Folding screens provide valuable separation between patients at a small infusion clinic in Northern California.

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Infusion NorCal

 

 

 

The 8-panel wall-mounted screens feature duo-panels with alternating calming colors with daylight tops that allow light to fill the area.

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A pediatric infusion center in Florida offers young children a distraction from therapy with mobile StoryPanels folding screens.

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StoryPanels feature illustrations paired with close-up photography in the shape of planets, which helps stimulate creative thinking and compliments the aesthetic design of the room.

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Outpatient infusion centers

 

 

 

At a small infusion center in New York City, space is at a premium, so a set of mobile folding PhotoPanels screens are vital for making patients feel safe and comfortable in close quarters.

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The PhotoPanels folding screens feature our Calm Lake design to offer a peaceful reprieve during treatment.

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Mobile folding screens provide a clean, versatile privacy solution to separate patients from the intake area and one another in an infusion clinic.

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Daylight panels allow sunlight to illuminate an area while still providing complete privacy.

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Mobile folding screens give infusion care teams the flexibility to completely open up an area for better oversight of patients and easier workflows.

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Infusion center NorCal room

 

 

 

A brand-new infusion treatment and testing center employs a combination of wall-mounted and mobile folding screens.

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With the ability to fold and roll screens away, staff can create a more open environment for better workflow in the absence of patients.

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Privacy screens offer patients privacy from other patients and staff in the hub at the center of the large open space.

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Infusion and testing center room

The Silentia screen system contributes to patient-centered infusion care with flexibility and ease of use. It is designed to support the privacy, versatility, and cleanliness requirements of infusion centers and hospital departments to provide dignity, respect, and safe care for infusion patients.

Are you interested in Silentia’s infusion care solutions? Connect with us to learn more!

Simplifying patient privacy with EasyCare design features

Cleaning a Silentia folding screen handle with a cloth

In the healthcare environment, caregivers need convenient and simple ways to deliver quality patient care. The Silentia screen system and its EasyCare features support this through a refreshingly innovative approach to patient privacy.

The Silentia screen system is a modular privacy solution made up of more than 4,000 different product combinations that can be customized to fit any patient care area. The system is designed with a patented suite of technical features, called EasyCare, that make it easy to use and easily adaptable to the changing needs of patient care.

The key features of EasyCare, comprising EasyClean™, EasyReturn™, and EasyClick™, are designed to improve cleanliness, efficiency, and flexibility. Let’s delve into each feature and explore how Silentia’s intentional design is revolutionizing patient privacy.

EasyClean™: Simplicity that elevates hygiene.

Cleaning is an essential but labor-intensive and costly task in the healthcare environment. EasyClean™ addresses this challenge by simplifying the process of keeping patient privacy clean and free of bacteria.

Due to the nature of the patient care area, any surface, including a privacy barrier, is subject to frequent handling and becomes quickly contaminated with germs. A number of studies have been conducted that prove this, including one that showed 92% of privacy curtains contaminated after one week of use.

With EasyClean™, Silentia’s privacy screens enable nurses to clean them in the room and more frequently, empowering teams to maintain a clean and hygienic environment. The screens feature hard surfaces and durable materials that can be wiped or washed clean with any common cleaning agents used on other surfaces around the room. Silentia screens are specifically designed to minimize areas that might trap dirt or other contaminants, which simplifies cleaning by eliminating the need for complex cleaning routines, equipment, or materials.

EasyReturn™: Effortless usability by design.

EasyReturn™ describes the hinge and handle technology built into Silentia’s folding and bed end screen solutions. These features are designed with a keen focus on user-friendly functionality when opening, closing, or adjusting a screen. It’s the smooth, effortless operation of Silentia screens that allows care teams to create privacy or space quickly and easily at a moment’s notice.

The reinforced, ergonomic handle is designed to provide one single point of contact with the screen that allows the user to easily open, close, or maneuver it with one hand. The hinges are designed to fold in one direction, ensuring that they open and close the correct way every time they are used. These features limit the amount of handling required to use them and helps reduces the spread of bacteria. In addition to promoting efficiencies, these features also help ensure a long performance life of the screens.

EasyClick™: Flexibility for high-quality care.

The EasyClick™ feature is Silentia’s solution for offering patient privacy that is flexible and versatile. EasyClick™ technology consists of a built-in retractable locking system that connects a screen to its mounting counterpart—a mobile trolley, wall mount, floor pole, or another screen. It offers endless possibilities for configuring the perfect custom privacy solution without lacking quality.

By simplifying how screens can be connected and installed, nurses or facilities teams have the freedom to adjust a setup to better align with their workflows. For example, a wall-mounted folding screen can be quickly removed and transferred to a trolley mount for instant mobile privacy. It means a screen solution is never obsolete, but rather can be adapted to a new solution or layout as requirements change over time.

Support for long-term sustainability

The EasyCare functions contribute to a long-term perspective on patient privacy and are part of the reason our products have a proven lifetime of more than 10 years. Learn about our eco design principles that guide our product development process and how it translates to more sustainable, long-term solutions for our customers.

Silentia’s EasyCare suite of features—EasyClean™, EasyReturn™, and EasyClick™—is redefining patient privacy. With the Silentia screens system, hospitals can progress beyond textile and disposable privacy with clean, efficient, and high-quality protection for their patients.

Connect with us today to learn more about EasyCare or visit silentiascreen.com/easycare as we continue to add new features and offerings.

Privacy solutions for perioperative care: Safety and comfort for surgery patients

In the dynamic environment of perioperative care, healthcare staff are responsible for the supervision and treatment of patients preparing for, receiving, or recovering from surgery. Silentia privacy screens can be valuable tools for improving perioperative care by creating private spaces that grant patients dignity, safety, and comfort.

Perioperative care is comprised of many environments, including assessment areas, preparation rooms, surgical wards, operating departments, post-anesthetic recovery rooms, and outpatient clinics. Each area requires different levels of treatment, observation, length of stay, and follow-up procedures, which means healthcare staff must be able to adapt to changing needs as patients change.

Silentia screens are designed to reduce time, labor, and materials costs at every turn. Their hard surfaces can be cleaned in the room with typical surface cleaning wipes or solutions, promoting infection control with more frequent cleaning and expedited room turnover. Plus, durable construction that stands up to the wear and tear of frequent use has been proven to last more than 10 years.

Need to see real-life perioperative applications of the Silentia screen system? We have gathered some examples from perioperative departments in hospitals across the country and around the world. They’re tailor-made to tackle all sorts of challenges, like making sure patients feel safe and respected, keeping things clean, preventing infections, and keeping the staff and the hospital running smoothly.

Get inspired by how Silentia privacy screens can transform the meaning of patient-oriented care in your department!

Large open unit

 

 

 

A newly constructed recovery unit of a same-day surgery center creates separation between patients while offering plenty of light in a large open bay.

 

 

 

The postoperative recovery area uses rail-mounted folding screens between patients to offer privacy with easy monitoring by staff.

 

 

 

A newly constructed preoperative and postoperative unit employs wall-mounted folding screens for patient privacy allowing space for monitors and other equipment.

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A postoperative unit replaced curtains with fixed screens between patients and the option to close a folding screen across the front for complete privacy.

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A post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) replaced curtains in open bays with colorful wall-mounted StoryPanels and bright orange and green panels.

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A postoperative unit improves safety for patients and efficiency for staff, all while adding to the aesthetics of the room with custom branded PhotoPanels.

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Multi-patient room

 

 

 

Fixed screens, mounted to the wall on one end and a floor pole on the other, create separation and privacy between patient beds in a same-day surgery PACU.

 

 

 

By removing bulky, dark curtains, this multi-patient perioperative room added light and landscapes with a set of five wall-mounted PhotoPanels folding screens.

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The minimal footprint and compact design of a wall-mounted folding screen offers privacy in a preoperative and postoperative patient assessment area.

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Single-patient rooms

 

 

 

Wall-mounted folding screens offer semi-private individual spaces for patients in a large preoperative and postoperative unit.

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An outpatient wound clinic replaced disposable curtains with wall and floor pole-mounted privacy screens to better handle overspray from sterilization and wound care.

The Silentia screen system contributes to the demands of perioperative staff and workflows with flexibility and ease of use. They can be mounted directly to the wall or on mobile trolleys and can be moved, extended, and closed easily with a single-touchpoint handle. The variety of styles, heights, and lengths gives staff the ability to monitor patients while maintaining their privacy.

Interested in Silentia’s perioperative solutions? Connect with us to learn more!

Introducing the new EasyScreenDesign™

EasyScreenDesign on ipad

As a leader in patient privacy, Silentia continues to innovate patient privacy and strives to make it easy for healthcare teams to achieve safer and more dignified care for their patients. EasyScreenDesign is Silentia’s proprietary design configurator that makes it easy to create and customize your own privacy screen.

EasyScreenDesign is one of our most important tools for supporting those seeking better privacy alternatives. It gives you the power to design a patient privacy solution suited to your specific privacy, hygiene, and design preferences or requirements.

Healthcare teams face many challenges around providing safety for patients while keeping up with changes in the care environments. That’s why we created EasyScreenDesign with the user in mind. Whether you work directly with patients as a nurse or department manager or are part of a design or architecture team developing new patient areas, our intuitive platform makes it easy for anyone, with or without technical expertise, to explore the entire Silentia screen system and customizations.

We are excited to introduce an updated version of EasyScreenDesign—EasyScreenDesign 3.0!

With a handful of new features, including an improved layout, navigation, design options, and capabilities, EasyScreenDesign 3.0 makes it easier than ever to create your design and do more with it. Below we explore some of the key changes and new features!

EasyScreenDesign new layout map

A new, cleaner layout

An updated layout, a new comprehensive menu, and new features make EasyScreenDesign more intuitive and easier than ever to explore products and design your screen. Follow the guide above to find features in their new locations.

    • Yellow: Product menu
    • Purple: Favorite, fold/unfold, and measurements buttons
    • Blue: Fullscreen toggle button
    • Green: Share and contact buttons

 

Access to BIMobject/3D design files

BIM/3D design files are important assets used in architecture and construction to ensure the accuracy of and facilitate seamless integration of our products into project models. With just a click, users are directed to our extensive library of Revit files found on BIMobject.

EasyScreenDesign info tab screenshot

Information at your fingertips

The new EasyScreenDesign makes it easy to understand all the design options. Use the ⓘ symbol to see complete product descriptions, detailed images, sizes, recommendations, and more.

EasyScreenDesign mobile devices

A mobile-friendly experience

With a growing number of EasyScreenDesign users coming from mobile devices, the updated version features the same design capabilities as the desktop version on a phone or tablet.

 

EasyScreenDesign makes privacy…well, easy!

Need some inspiration? Visit our EasyScreenDesign page for a curated collection of premade screen and combination designs that are sure to spark your creativity and help you get started. Simply click on the images to view that design in the configurator.

Love your design? Submit it directly to us for a free quote and one of our team members will connect with you. Start designing now!