Can Border Security Improve Healthcare?

Last week, my husband and I had an amazing trip planned to take our son to Canada and do a week of serious fishing.

We had the flights, we made all the reservations, we packed our bags, and headed to the airport.  Then we tried to go through security.

And that’s as far as we got.

I had checked the requirements for children crossing the border into Canada when we were planning the trip. I read that children didn’t need passports to cross the border and visit our neighbors to the north—our son would just needed proof of American citizenship.  No problem.  I packed his birth certificate.

However, what I didn’t read, is that this rule only applies if you are travelling by car or foot or bicycle or boat.  It does not apply to airplanes.  If you fly into Canada, you need an actual passport.

We tried to figure another way around:  maybe flying to the closest border city and driving across?  But, ultimately, the cost to change the flights and the time it would then take to drive to the mountain lakes with all the fish, just made the trip too prohibitive.  So, we settled for some Arizona lakes instead.  You’ll be happy to know the border is secure.

When it comes to handling restoration and construction projects in a healthcare setting, border security between the work site and the rest of the hospital also needs to be a top priority.  As partners in patient care, when restoration contractors work in a healthcare environment, our priority is always complete containment of dust, noise, infectious contaminants, and debris of any kind.

When containment is the contractor’s top priority, it creates a safe working and healing environment for medical personnel, hospital staff, patients, visitors, and the restoration team.

The challenge to containment comes because many times these renovation projects need to be accomplished while adjacent treatment areas are still in use and need to remain open.  One of the best tools our team has employed in these circumstances is the STARC containment system.

This unique system is fabricated to create a clean, attractive barrier that reduces noise pollution by 50% and completely eliminates dust and airborne pathogens from escaping the enclosed space.  When our team sets up the STARC system, we can be up and running in just a couple of hours, with a completely protective, airtight barrier that is environmentally friendly and washable.  The walls can be disinfected with antimicrobial products and reused in other applications and are superior to traditional drywall barriers for containment, disposal, setup, and safety.

Just as important, it also gives us the freedom to work right next to active treatment areas in a hospital or healthcare environment without worrying about sounds, smells, debris, contaminants, or dust, interrupting or disrupting the work and care occurring in the adjoining areas.

In one case, we were working on restoring damage to a local hospital after some flooding caused by a monsoon storm.  The area affected was right next to the laboratory.  Obviously, containment was of the highest priority with no room for error.  We were able to set up a clean, secure work barrier on a sloped floor in under an hour.  The laboratory department was able to carry on their work without interruption, while we were able to more forward to restore the adjacent area and remediate the water damage without affecting any lab procedures, delaying results and treatment protocols, or contaminating vital lab samples.

As restoration contractors, using new technologies, like a STARC containment system, will improve your outcomes and allow you to provide an excellent product for healthcare clients, especially in terms of meeting the safety and security standards that are critical in a healthcare setting.  When you take your border security seriously, it makes each project, procedure, and patient safer.  And that is always the goal.