In hospitals around the world, private rooms are at a premium. Single-rooms are not as common as hospital wards with multi-person rooms. In order to achieve any form of privacy and to assure some level of personal dignity, the medical personnel and facility staff install privacy curtains. These curtains can be pulled around a bedroom to create a single unit. This provides each person with the chance to have some space they can call their own as long as they have to remain in hospital.
Hospital drapes are no longer a singular type of tool for privacy. At one time, they were a homogenous unit. They rarely differed from one medical facility to the next. Today, however, there are choices. They can be carbon-copies of the past hospital curtains or appear to be the total opposite. Yet, no matter what the choice of management, privacy curtains come in two essential types. These are traditional and disposable.
Traditional Privacy Curtains
Since the beginning, privacy curtains have been designed to suit the purpose of achieving some form of privacy. The early versions featured heavy fabric. Today, while hospital drapes are still made from fabric, the approach and standards have altered. The current type of hospital curtains are:
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Washable fabrics, easily laundered
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Lightweight material – easily removed and not requiring great muscle or bulk to take down and carry
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Cloth that is fire retardant
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Anti –microbial fabric – becoming the required standard to reduce the instances of the spreading of diseases internally
There have been other changes with the approach to selecting privacy curtains. At one point, the standard color for most medical facilities was bland – blue or white to match the walls, and without a pattern. Today, particularly on children’s wards, the curtains are colorful. They feature cartoon characters and the stars from animated movies. They feature heroes and superheroes and balloons, animals and other delightful characters. They can have rainbows, lollipops and dogs and fluffy kittens. The curtains remain traditional but the adherence to the old color and no-pattern scheme has vanished.
Another way the traditional curtains have altered is in their move towards panels. Instead of being one long length of fabric, hospital drapes have become single panels that can be grouped together. This makes putting up and taking down easier. How they accomplish this has also changed. There are several different ways to attach curtains to the tracks. These include simple snap-ons.
Disposable Privacy Curtains
In contrast to the reusable traditional curtains are the disposable ones. The need to provide privacy while preventing the spread of infections has resulted in some medical facilities turning to disposable privacy curtains. They are designed for a limited use. Once they have completed their time, they are thrown away. This saves on laundering. It may also save on time and money.
In hospitals, the curtains are an important part of maintaining an individual’s privacy. Privacy curtains also, however, have to be able to help prevent the spread of many different infections. In accomplishing this task, the current medical professionals have the choice between two comparable products: traditional and disposable privacy curtains at
