Quality brings comfort to a new Children’s hospital in Finland

Upon entering the New Children's Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, visitors are met with an overall design that feels warm and inviting with thoughtful touches such as a tap for cleaning wheelchairs in the entrance.

"This is really fantastic, said Marko Sundholm, Country Manager of Oras Finland. Impressed by the attention to detail and welcoming feel. "The selected materials are natural, which makes the building approachable.” An aspect, he says, is vital to children who may be intimidated by the sterile environment of a typical hospital.

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In the Nordics, HANSA products are sold under the Oras name, but Oras and HANSA are sister brands sharing a combined vision to become the European leader of advanced sanitary fittings.

And when the hospital was seeking help to incorporate innovative solutions for its water fixtures, Sundholm knew it would be a fit for Oras. "This is a large collaborative project, and we wanted to be a part of it," Sundholm said. Oras went on to donate several hundred faucets for just about every room in the building, which includes 118 patient rooms and 220 reception or rehabilitation facilities.

Faucets bring the right functionality to every room

As with the hospital's other details, the faucets were carefully considered and selected based on the location and intended use, explained Oras Group's Category Manager, Juhani Lempinen. "For example, in premises where the doctors use the faucets, hygiene is number one, and in these cases, touchless faucets are the right choice, " he said. In patient's rooms, on the other hand, the nurses must wash their hands, and the patients should be able to have cool water to drink, so we chose hybrid faucets."

"The bacteria count on a touchless faucet is up to 98% lower than on a manual faucet."

 

Source: WANDER Nordic Water and Materials institute

In a hospital, good hygiene saves human lives. In fact, with research showing that 80% of microbes are spread between humans by either direct touch or indirect contact, touchless faucets become essential in hospital conditions – and a valuable instrument in reducing the risk of transmitting microbes near handwashing stations.

External microbes are not the only concern. Incidents of illness caused by legionella, which often grows in warm, stagnant water, have increased worldwide in buildings, old and new. In many cases, household faucets, which often have an aerator, mix air into the water flow, causing the water to spray out. The resulting spray then releases microbes that spread into the surrounding air. To mitigate this risk, HANSA faucets for Health & Care sector feature a laminar flow with no air and no water spray.

A collaborative approach to hospitals

Having developed an international network, HANSA has planned and developed products for hospitals throughout Europe. The end-users are included during the planning and provide the basis for product development. For instance, the children's hospital, model rooms were built in the parking garage so user needs could be immediately reviewed through a collaborative process.

Correspondingly, Lempinen sees the hospital projects as an integral part of HANSA’s product development. "In hospitals, we can develop the most advanced parts of our product portfolio, he says, by bringing electronics and multi-purpose features to faucets, which will then be introduced elsewhere gradually."