As the winter season approaches, influenza activity continues to increase. The CDC urges everyone 6 months and older to get a flu vaccine to prevent the spread of the illness. However, influenza isn’t the only disease that spreads during the winter months. In addition to vaccination, it’s important that businesses, schools, and healthcare facilities continue to promote healthy hygiene habits to help protect employees, students, and patients.

Practicing Proper Hand Hygiene

Cleaning your hands is one of the easiest and most effective ways to protect you from the spread of germs. Facilities that do their part to encourage healthy hand hygiene can reduce the spread of illness among staff and visitors.

Hand Washes and Hand Sanitizers

Finding products that don’t dry out hands and leave no sticky residue behind plays an important role in creating a culture of hand hygiene. Symmetry^® products are gentle on your skin because Symmetry understands the importance of providing products that people want to use.

Symmetry hand washes and hand sanitizers reduce common disease-causing bacteria. They are designed for repeated use and are formulated with ingredients like ethyl alcohol, allantoin, aloe, and vitamin E. 

Tools and Resources

Oftentimes a large barrier to reducing the spread of illness is education. Supporting your hand hygiene products with educational tools like posters and signs can help bring awareness to the importance of hand hygiene and educate facility visitors about proper hand hygiene practices.

Symmetry has a variety of tools including Education and Awareness posters and the Symmetry Behavior Modification System (SBMS). SBMS utilizes behavioral science to drive hand hygiene practices in the moment. With colorful dispensers, messaged or mirrored placards, floor decals, and flashing lights, Symmetry draws the eye to a hand hygiene opportunity to encourage the user to participate.

Cleaning and Disinfecting Appropriately 

Cleaning and disinfecting regularly is a year-round task that might need to be revisited during respiratory illness season. Frequently touched objects like doorknobs, light switches, and keyboards should be routinely cleaned and disinfected. Proper disinfection includes making sure your chemicals are diluted correctly so that they can kill the organisms on the label.

Products like Eco^® One-Step Disinfectant/Deodorizer/Cleaner E22 and Eco Neutral Disinfectant E23 combat many common disease-causing organisms, including Influenza A Virus and many other organisms. The Eco Proportioning Program includes proportioning systems that automatically dilute cleaners and disinfectants for any room in your facility. This takes the guess work out of product dilution and ensures your facility is cleaned with products that get the job done.

For more information on how Buckeye products and programs can help you combat the illness in your facility, contact one of our expert representatives.

Established in 1986, International Infection Prevention Week (IIPW) celebrates Infection Preventionists and aims to assist in decreasing the spread of infection in healthcare facilities. This year’s theme is “Celebrating the Fundamentals of Infection Prevention” with a goal to return to the basics of infection prevention.

The Basics

Understanding the basics of infection prevention begins with hand hygiene. Cleaning hands often with soap and water or hand sanitizer can make a huge difference in infection prevention. According to the World Health Organization, “Appropriate hand hygiene prevents up to 50% of avoidable infections acquired during healthcare delivery, including those affecting the health work force.”

Improving Hand Hygiene Compliance 

Infection Preventionists are working every day to break the chain of infection throughout the continuum of care. One of the best ways to reduce healthcare associated infections (HAIs) is to improve hand hygiene compliance rates. How do you improve hand hygiene compliance rates?

Acceptance + Compliance = Lower HAIs

If healthcare workers like the hand hygiene products available to them, they will use those products and, as a result, help prevent HAIs.

Symmetry Hand Hygiene 

Symmetry manufactures products that outperform other hand hygiene lines in overall quality and feel after repeated use. These products are gentle on healthcare workers’ hands, encouraging them to wash and sanitize them frequently.

With Point of Care Tools like lanyards, tray table suction cups, and cart brackets, Symmetry strives to make hand hygiene available throughout the workflow. The Symmetry Hand Hygiene Program also utilizes behavioral science to drive hand hygiene compliance. These unique placards, beacons, and visual lighting cues help draw attention to opportunities for hand hygiene in the moment.

Learn more about the complete program and how Symmetry works with Infection Preventionists to increase hand hygiene compliance and reduce infections in healthcare facilities by contacting your local representative.

Thank you to all the Infection Preventionists who are doing their part to keep healthcare facilities safe for everyone.

Celebrate World Hand Hygiene Day with us! Infection Preventionists around the world are doing so much to reduce the spread of disease in healthcare facilities and beyond. We want to show our thanks by promoting healthy hand hygiene practices.

This year, the World Health Organization’s slogan for World Hand Hygiene Day is, “Accelerate action together. SAVE LIVES – Clean Your Hands.” Their aim is to improve hand hygiene at point of care by reminding healthcare workers to love the 5 Moments.

What are the 5 Moments? 

The 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene are key moments when healthcare workers should perform hand hygiene. This evidence-based, field-tested, user-centered approach is designed to be easy to learn, logical, and applicable in a wide range of settings.

1. Before Patient Contact
2. Before Aseptic Task
3. After Body Fluid Exposure Risk
4. After Patient Contact
5. After Contact with Patient Surroundings

Reducing the spread of HAIs begins with clean hands. Healthcare staff members, patients, and visitors can all benefit when hands are cleaned during the 5 moments.

Improving Hand Hygiene at Point of Care 

Point of Care refers to the moments when healthcare workers are in contact with patients and are at the highest risk of spreading infections. This includes most of the 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene. By increasing opportunities for hand hygiene at Point of Care, healthcare facilities can keep hand sanitizer and hand wash available at key times, including before and after patient contact. 

Due to the high risk of the spread of HAIs, the Joint Commission recognizes individual failure to follow hand hygiene procedures during point of care as a deficiency. This means that a complete hand hygiene program includes Point of Care tools that give healthcare workers easy access to hand hygiene opportunities while working directly with patients. 

Access to hand sanitizer at a W.O.W., tray table, anesthesia cart, or on your person makes hand hygiene more convenient for workers. Symmetry^® offers Point of Care options for all of these and more:

1. Tray Table/W.O.W. to ml
2. Suction Cup 550 ml
3. 50 ml Lanyard
4. Suction Cup 50 ml
5. Anesthesia Cart Bracket 550 ml

Hand hygiene is a year-round commitment for healthcare facilities. We thank our Infection Preventionists this World Hand Hygiene Day for the work they do all year long to keep us safe.

Contact your local representative to see how these tools can help improve compliance in your facility.

April 22^nd is Earth Day and this year’s theme is “Invest in Our Planet.” As an environmentally conscious company, we’re proud to share the ways Buckeye has put sustainability first. Our commitment to sustainability has been foundational to our company and that commitment will continue in 2023 and beyond. 

Safer, Greener Products

Our products promote worker and environmental safety. We proactively eliminated hazardous ingredients like butyl, solvents, and alcohol bases and replaced them with our patented Liquescent® technology. This water-based technology strengthens the cleaning power of our products while making them safer for workers and the environment.

We also began manufacturing wood floor coatings for the Buckeye Reflections® Wood Floor Program. Both our oil and water-based wood floor coatings contain the lowest VOCs (volatile organic compounds) on the market.

Several Buckeye Eco®  and Symmetry Hand Hygiene products are Green Seal™ certified. Green Seal is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to safeguarding the environment and transforming the marketplace by promoting the manufacture, purchase, and use of environmentally responsible products and services. Our Green Seal certified products not only outperform other green products, they also outperform non-green, conventional chemistries.

Plastic Reduction

We package our products in environmentally friendly ways, ensuring plastic reduction where possible. Eco and Symmetry 1.25 L bags are manufactured with 83% less plastic than rigid containers.

More than 99% of trash can liners end up in landfills. That’s why Gateway® has focused on plastic reduction during the manufacturing process. In the trash liner industry, the best way to be green is to reduce the overall plastic sent to the landfill, also referred to as Source Reduction. Gateway Liners are stronger and thinner to reduce plastic usage while maintaining industry leading strength.

Sustainable Packaging 

Eco packaging is recyclable and made from recycled materials. The Eco outer box packaging is made from 41% recycled material and the Eco inner carton packaging is made from 35% post-consumer material. Because of this, over the past year, Buckeye has:

• Saved enough energy to power an average American home for 19 years
• Saved 125.4 cubic yards of landfill space
• Saved 266,000 gallons of water
• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 38 tons of carbon equivalent

Buckeye continues to look forward, always searching for new ways to reduce our environmental impact and improve the lives of those who work with our products. Find out more about our sustainability initiatives by contacting your local sales representative.

Combatting the spread of HAIs (healthcare associated infections) in healthcare facilities is a complex task that requires a multi-faceted approach. Hospitals and other healthcare facilities require an effective cleaning and maintenance program to protect staff, visitors, and patients from the spread of germs and illness.

Hand Hygiene 

The CDC states that hand hygiene is one of the most important steps in reducing the spread of germs. Making hand sanitizer and hand washes readily available to staff and visitors can help reduce the risk of the spread of germs, but there are other ways an effective hand hygiene program can combat disease.

In addition to top-of-the-line products, offering education and awareness materials alongside behavior modification tools that inspire immediate hand hygiene practices can increase compliance rates in healthcare facilities.

The Symmetry^® Hand Hygiene Program offers those tools and more. Symmetry’s Point of Care tools make hand hygiene available when it’s needed most. For example, the 50 ml Tray Table/W.O.W. Clip puts sanitizer right at the patient’s bedside for easy access before and after patient care.

Cleaning and Disinfecting 

Proper cleaning and disinfecting procedures can have a huge impact on the spread of germs in any healthcare facility. The Buckeye Eco^® Proportioning Program simplifies cleaning and disinfecting with automatic dilution, ensuring important products like disinfectants are properly diluted every time.

Eco products include cleaners, disinfectants, and sanitizers for every surface in a hospital or healthcare facility. EPA expects products on List N to kill all strains and variants of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) when used according to the label directions. All Eco disinfectants are on List-N.

However, a cleaning program is not complete without the proper training. Cleaning and disinfecting procedures need to be followed carefully so areas like patient rooms and hospital waiting rooms remain free of germs. To ensure hospital staff have access to the information they need, Buckeye created the Prescription Training Program.

Prescription is a complete maintenance program for hospitals that presents the products, procedures, and training needed to meet your facility’s highest standards. The Prescription program provides training in routine cleaning, patient room cleaning, surgery room cleaning, restroom, carpet care, hard floor care, and product safety. This program and its resources are available online, 24 hours a day.

Reducing the spread of HAIs is a constant battle. Make sure the people in your healthcare facility have access to the tools they need to combat illness. Contact your local sales representative to learn more.

CDC data shows that more than 9,100 positive flu tests have been recorded over the first three weeks of the flu season. This is the highest number of positive tests that have been recorded early in a season since the 2009-10 season.

To prevent the flu, the CDC recommends getting the yearly flu vaccine. You can also take a number of everyday preventative actions including avoiding close contact with those who are sick, covering your coughs and sneezes, cleaning and disinfecting surfaces, and washing your hands often.

It’s important for schools, hospitals, and retail facilities to take steps to protect students, patients, and employees from the flu and other diseases that spread during this time of year. One of the first lines of defense is hand hygiene. Ensure people in your facility have access to effective, gentle hand hygiene products that are proven to reduce common disease-causing bacteria.

Symmetry^® offers hand sanitizers and hand washes that people want to use. The Symmetry Hand Hygiene Program offers unique tools that can help educate employees and visitors about hand hygiene and promote proper hand hygiene practices. The Symmetry Behavior Modification System utilizes unique placards and signs that draw attention to hand hygiene opportunities, helping you create a culture of hand hygiene and reduce illness in your facility.

Establishing a consistent, effective cleaning and disinfecting program can reduce the spread of the flu and other germs in your facility. The Buckeye Eco^® Proportioning Program has cleaners and disinfectants for all surface types. Several Eco disinfectants have also been approved by the EPA for use against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19).

For schools and universities, the Buckeye Honors^® Custodial Training Program can provide an additional level of support during flu season. With training modules on proper cleaning and disinfecting procedures for classroom, hallways, restrooms, cafeterias, and more, Honors can ensure your custodial staff are trained and prepared during the 2022-23 flu season and beyond.

Contact your Buckeye representative for more information about how Buckeye products and programs can help you combat the flu this year.

This week is International Infection Prevention Week (IIPW). Established in 1986, IIPW raises awareness of the role infection prevention plays in improving patient safety. This year’s theme, “The Future is Infection Prevention: 50 Years of Infection Prevention”, aims to show appreciation for APIC’s past work in infection prevention while inspiring new IPs to continue this important work.

Though there are many ways to reduce the spread of healthcare associated infections (HAIs), the most important way is to clean your hands. Symmetry strives to reduce HAIs with gentle products that people want to use in reliable dispensing systems.

Symmetry’s programmatic approach to hand hygiene educates and encourages proper hand hygiene practice with educational tools, the Symmetry Behavior Modification System, and Point of Care tools. Its education and awareness tools include posters and wall charts, designed to explain the “How” and “Why” of proper hand hygiene. The Symmetry Behavior Modification System consists of a series of unique placards and signs with messages designed to inspire and maximize hand hygiene practices. Symmetry Point of Care items include suction cups, brackets, and lanyards that make it possible to access hand sanitizer while workers are in contact with patients and are at the highest risk of spreading germs.

On behalf of Symmetry and Buckeye International, we’d like to thank our IPs for the work they continue to do while fighting COVID-19, the flu, and other healthcare associated infections. International Infection Prevention Week happens every third week of October, but infection prevention is a full-time job. Check out all of the tools APIC provides to keep you informed about infection prevention here.

Contact your local representative for more information about Symmetry products and how a complete hand hygiene program can improve compliance in your facility.

With a commitment to developing products that are safer for workers and the environment, Buckeye established itself as “green” long before it became a marketing strategy. For Buckeye, sustainability means providing the most innovative, high performance and cost effective products, packaging, and programs that promote human health and safety.

Products

Green Seal™ Certified Products

Many Buckeye products are Green Seal certified. These products are safer for the worker and environment without compromising product performance. Our Green Seal certified products not only outperform other green products, they also outperform non-green conventional chemistries.

“Green Seal is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to safeguarding the environment and transforming the marketplace by promoting the manufacture, purchase, and use of environmentally responsible products and services.”

Liquescent Technology

To eliminate hazardous ingredients like butyl, solvents, and alcohol bases, Buckeye developed Liquescent technology. This water-based technology has allowed Buckeye to manufacture high-performance products while adhering to our principle of human health and safety.

R-Fit Liners

Gateway’s R-Fit liners are made with the highest quality resins to create lighter, stronger liners with less plastic. They are designed to fit specific trash can sizes, further reducing plastic waste. On average, Gateway customers reduced the amount of plastic reaching landfills by 39%.

Wood Floor Coatings

Reflections Wood Floor Coatings do not require crosslinkers, which contain polyfunctional aziridene. This crosslinker is used by other manufacturers to increase durability, but it has respiratory and nervous system health implications. In fact, many manufacturers that use polyfunctional aziridine warn consumers that it should be treated as a potential carcinogen.

Packaging

Eco and Symmetry 1.25 L bags are manufactured with 83% less plastic than rigid containers. Because our products work more efficiently and our packaging is recyclable and biodegradable, you use less product, and therefore less waste ends up in landfills.

Eco outer box packaging is also made with 41% recycled material, recyclable, and double wall corrugated. Eco inner carton packaging is made from 100% recycled paperboard and 35% post-consumer material.

Dilution Control Programs

Our dilution control systems eliminate direct contact with product and ensure our concentrated products are being used according to manufacturer specifications. Our products, packaging, and dilution control systems are also color and number coded to make them easier and safer for employees to use.

Training

Buckeye programs come with specialized training that focuses on worker and environmental safety. With standardized procedures that reduce product usage, labor, and overall cost, Buckeye is committed to enhancing product performance and safety.

Contact your representative to see how Buckeye programs can improve worker and environmental safety in your facility.

COVID-19 continues to evolve, causing new variants to occur, many of which are being tracked as the pandemic continues. Because these variants are each unique, they can spread at different speeds and can be more resistant to treatments or vaccines. The COVID-19 variant, Omicron, has been detected in most states and is rapidly increasing the proportion of COVID-19 cases in the US. In addition to getting vaccinated, wearing masks, and maintaining social distance, keeping your environment clean can go a long way in preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Facilities hoping to navigate the pandemic should develop a step-by-step cleaning and disinfecting program that will protect people who visit. Buckeye’s Door to Floor: 4 Levels of Protection program can help provide those who enter your facility with peace of mind during the pandemic.

Level 1: Protect Yourself with the Symmetry^® Hand Hygiene Program

CDC Recommendation: Hand washing is one of the best ways you can help reduce the spread of germs.

Symmetry can help your facility implement a hand hygiene program, providing tools that promote education, awareness, and motivation to practice hand hygiene.

Level 2: Intermittently protect your facility with the Eco^® Proportioning Program

CDC Recommendations: Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces following product label directions and proper dwell times. 

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved several Buckeye products for use against SARS-Related Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [cause of COVID-19], including Buckeye Eco One-Step Disinfectant-Deodorizer-Cleaner E22. The Eco Proportioning Program comes with training materials and tools to help staff with proper disinfecting procedures. 

Level 3: Use Clarion^® 25 Microban^® Antimicrobial Floor Finish and Arena^® Microban Antimicrobial Wood Floor Coating

Microban technology is built-in to these products during the manufacturing process. When microbes come in contact with the product surface, Microban technology penetrates the cell wall of the microorganism and disrupts the cell, making the microorganism unable to grow and reproduce. * 

*Microban technology does not protect users against disease-causing microorganisms. Microban Products Company makes neither direct nor implied public health claims. Normal cleaning practices should be maintained.

Level 4: Protect your facility with Gateway Liners and recommendations

Use stronger, better fitting liners to minimize contaminant exposure. Gateway Liners performs rigorous strength, weight, puncture and tear tests.

Properly dispose trash into lined containers and frequently replace liners. Frequently clean and disinfect inside and outside of trash containers. 

Buckeye takes COVID-19 seriously and continues to take a proactive approach in our effort to help minimize exposure to illness. Buckeye programs strive to educate the public on the importance of best cleaning, disinfecting, and hand hygiene practices. Contact your local representative to find out more about Buckeye’s Door to Floor: 4 Levels of Protection program.

Is there a driving force behind the decisions we make? Can behavioral science improve hand hygiene practices? Behavioral science focuses on the way humans interact with the world and the cognitive processes that drive those action. For manufacturers, understanding these decision-making processes can help with product design and in-store placement. A famous example of this can be seen in the check-out lanes of your local grocery store. Various candy, gum, and chip companies have realized that by placing their products near check-out lanes, directly in the sight of children increases sales dramatically.

For the Symmetry^® Hand Hygiene Program, behavioral science has provided a way to influence healthy hand hygiene practices. Working with Dr. Adam Alter, a Behavioral Scientist, Symmetry has developed the Symmetry Behavior Modification System (SBMS), a set of unique, cost-effective tools, based on six key tenets, designed to inspire hand hygiene compliance.

Each SBMS tool is inspired by six key tenets, benevolence, responsibility, accountability, variation, emotion, and direction. Colored dispensers can provide variation, drawing attention to hand hygiene opportunities. Symmetry’s messaged and mirrored placards can inspire benevolence, responsibly, accountability, and emotion, triggering the desire to wash or sanitize hands. Symmetry also provides floor decals to guide users towards hand sanitizers and hand washes.

Some other SBMS tools include features like motion detection and video displays. The Symmetry Visual Lighting Cue (VLC) can help dramatically increase hand hygiene compliance. The VLC flashes an amber or red light to draw attention to the dispenser, reminding people to practice hand hygiene. Similarly, the Symmetry Behavioral Beacon uses emoticon light projections to trigger a response. The Behavioral Beacon has the ability to project thumbs up, smiley face, and heart emoticons.

The new Symmetry MOTIV placard is a digital behavioral driver that uses motion and sound to trigger a response to take action. With one GB of memory and a ten-hour run time, MOTIV uses imagery and variation to keep messaging fresh all day long.

Symmetry’s numerous tools give all facilities the options they need to increase healthy hand hygiene practices among guests and staff. Contact your Symmetry representative to discover which SBMS tools are right for your facility.