CRESTVIEW — A Crestview High School graduate concerned about hospital-acquired infections from unsanitary bathing is doing something about it.
Neil Morris, a 1992 CHS graduate, has invented the Basin Glove, a disposable liner for wash basins that makes sponge baths safer.
Basically, the nurse inserts the liner in the wash basin, secures the elastic band around the basin's edges, and the patient receives a sponge bath in the liner, not the actual wash basin. Afterward, the nurse dumps the bath water and disposes of the liner.
The goal is to prevent hospital-acquired infections; approximately 98 percent of wash basins are contaminated following sponge baths, according to the American Journal for Critical Care.
Treating hospital-originated infections reportedly costs $15,000 per patient.
Morris — a former registered nurse who lives in Gilbert, Ariz., with his wife, Renee, and their four children — said sales from the product have allowed him to break even and pay the costs of running the business.
But the main goal isn't to make money; it's to curb the incidence of preventable infections.
"If my product can stop one infection, then it's worth it," he said.
Morris plans to keep working toward distributing his product, and will return to medical school so he can achieve a new goal.
"I want to have a (non-profit medical) facility that features both eastern and western medicine," he said.
In addition to receiving basic treatments, patients could receive aromatherapy and acupuncture therapies, among other alternative medicines, he said.
This Bulldog has big dreams, Morris said.
"Just because you are from a small town does not mean you can't accomplish something big," he said.
Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Matthew Brown at 850-682-6524 or matthewb@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbMatthew.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Bulldog working to curb hospital-acquired infections with invention