The risk of contamination in health care facilities, during surgical procedures, even when coming in to routine contact with patients is a huge concern for doctors, nurses and other health care professionals. Health care agencies, companies and facilities often go to great lengths to reduce or eliminate the risk of contamination or exposure to both their staff, the patients visiting them or even the incidental interactions between postal workers or other visitors. For many, every opportunity to risk exposure is worth the cost, and new automatic hand dispensers are playing a large part in safeguarding the health of patients and health care professionals alike.

Automatic hand dispensers take the place of the traditional manual devices that we have all come to know and love over the years. Long a staple of such lovely environments as public restrooms, doctors’ offices, operating rooms and many others, the manual paper towel dispenser was a simple roll of paper towels enclosed in plastic, operating by the pulling of a lever on the side, a lever which in a certain metaphorical light resembles the lever on a Vegas slot machine. When considering the odds of infection and the sort of infections that individuals may receive, the metaphor becomes clearer.

Even though users may have taken their place as one of the less than 25% of persons who wash their hands after using the restroom, handling raw foods or engaging in other potentially infectious behaviors, they are still rife with disease, and holding and using the lever on a manual, traditional paper towel dispenser is a huge opportunity to transfer diseases, bacteria, viruses or biologically hazardous materials to the device and then, eventually, the next users who come along. The compounding of all of these dangerous materials on such a small surface area makes the handle on the manual paper towel dispenser a nightmare of bacterial and viral hazards.

For doctors and other health care professionals, their avoidance of exposure to contaminants is more than just a concern for their personal health and hygiene. Dealing all day, every day, for years on end with potentially infectious patients presents a wealth of opportunities for infection. Considering the seriousness of some of the conditions for which patients seek treatment, keeping a clean and sterile environment is more than a professional courtesy. Rather, it is an attempt to preserve the health and well-being of both patients and health care professionals alike. With new strains of bacteria becoming more and more resistant to traditional treatments with antibiotics, the only sure way of preventing infection is to prevent exposure to harmful and potentially fatal contaminants.

Automatic hand dispensers in doctor's offices, health care clinics, hospitals and operating or surgical rooms is becoming the industry standard for health care. Rather than grope the lever and risk infection from innumerable contaminants, as well as passing on their own, exposure is eliminated by having doctors and other health care professionals free from ever having to touch the surface of the paper towel dispenser.

Lydia Ross is the author of this article on Automatic Hand Dispenser. Find more information on Automatic Hand Dispenser here.