Introducing the Skelton Barrier

As our hospitals and health care facilities deal with the continuing surge of coronavirus patients, there’s been a dire need for personal protective equipment, particularly N95 respirators and surgical masks. To help meet this urgent demand, CTEH’s scientific experts have stepped in to help.

We’re proud to unveil the Skelton Barrier, a clinically-tested patient enclosure system created out of readily-available, affordable hardware supplies.

In previous infectious disease outbreaks, negative pressure environments (NPEs) with ventilation systems have been used to isolate sick patients and reduce projectile aerosol exposure and transmission. Unfortunately, due to their high costs and the nation’s staggering patient loads, NPEs are no longer feasible solutions for facilities impacted by the coronavirus.

The Skelton Barrier, patent pending, uses a non-airtight system to create a small enclosure on a single bed. It is built using a PVC frame and disposable plastic sheet and mounts easily to a patient’s bed, with an opening at the head or feet for access and climate control. Thanks to its small footprint, facilities can implement as many of these patient-point barrier systems as needed to effectively decrease the spread of virus-infected aerosols.

Would you like to learn more about how the Skelton Barrier can protect patients and health care workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic? Please contact webquestion@cteh.com.

Any scientific or medical information included in this article is current as of the date of publication; however, public health knowledge of COVID-19 is rapidly developing. Readers are advised to monitor national, state and local public health agencies for current recommendations regarding any infectious disease.