Ideas That Work: Glass OR Walls Can Minimize Infection Risk

Practical pearls from your colleagues

Glass- or steel-walled operating rooms, which have been popular in Europe for some time, are a growing trend in U.S. ORs as the focus on infection prevention increases, particularly in total joints cases that carry a higher potential for infections.

Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in California was one of the earliest adopters, having installed a glass-walled system in 2020. The room includes rounded corners that allow fewer places for bacteria to hide, flush surfaces that make for easy and efficient cleaning and a powder coating that helps to fight off infectious elements.

One of the operating rooms in the UR Medicine Orthopaedics & Physical Performance Center in Rochester, N.Y., which opened a year ago, has glass walls as well. Designers say the prefabricated walls were quickly attached once on-site, which made for a quick build. They also stay cleaner, are easier to clean and don’t get beat up as drywall can, which means there are no dings and cracks that need to be filled and repainted, and, more importantly, don’t have crevices that can harbor organisms. OSM