Mehiläinen Medical Facility, Pori, Finland
Mehiläinen is a newly-renovated medical facility in Pori, Finland that has been one of the first healthcare centres in the country to capitalise on the antimicrobial properties of copper.
Mehiläinen is a newly-renovated medical facility in Pori,
Finland that has been one of the first healthcare centres in the
country to capitalise on the antimicrobial properties of
copper.
Opened in early September 2010, the facility introduced copper
floor drains and covers made from deep-drawn copper. These
have been used in toilets and shower rooms.
Mehiläinen offers a sports injury clinic, refractive eye
surgery, physiotherapy and occupational healthcare among other
services, and it was considered important to help control the
growth of organisms in challenging, high-humidity environments
by implementing copper.
Data obtained from the Finnish clinical trial at a nursing home,
which includes shower drains, suggests a role for Antimicrobial
Copper in this area. The first results show higher levels of
contamination on the non-copper items and the presence of faecal
and urinary bacteria, (Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli and
Candida albicans) only on stainless steel, plastic and
chromium components. On copper and copper alloy surfaces,
only Gram-positive bacilli and cocci and normal environmental and
skin flora were found.