Gloves

Who should wear infection protection gloves?
Any healthcare and homecare workers who handle food products or have contact with blood or body fluids that may be contaminated with blood. Also included are veterinarians and pet care workers. Anyone who handles cleaning and industrial chemicals, beauty care products, automobile products including oil or petroleum-based compounds that are potentially carcinogenic, and people who enjoy doing arts and crafts where harmful toxins can be absorbed through the skin and travel into your bloodstream.

When should gloves be worn?
“CDC has recommended that healthcare workers wear gloves to 1) reduce the risk of personnel acquiring infections from patients, 2) prevent healthcare worker flora from being transmitted to patients, and 3) reduce transient contamination of the hands of personnel by flora that can be transmitted from one patient to another. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandates that gloves be worn during all patient-care activities that may involve exposure to blood or body fluids that may contaminated with blood.”

– John M. Boyce, M.D. and Didier Pittet, M.D.,
CDC Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings

How often should the gloves be changed?
Gloves should be changed between each patient in the healthcare setting, and at every break between food handling/preparation.

How do I know what type of glove should be worn?
The following link, http://www.care-mates.com/html/materials.html, describes the various types of gloves and their recommended uses.

Are CareMates™ gloves hypoallergenic?
The FDA outlawed use of the term "hypoallergenic" by manufacturers a few years ago. If you are allergic to a material, you should select an alternate product for use.

Where are CareMates™ gloves produced?
Our Latex and Nitrile gloves are manufactured in Malaysia; our Vinyl and Vytrile© gloves are produced in China.

Are your factories ISO certified?
Yes. All of our CareMates™ production sites are ISO 9002 certified.

What is ISO certification and why is it important?
The International Standards Organization certifies factories that comply with internationally accepted standards. ISO 9002 certification for CareMates™ means that our products are produced in a quality fashion that is accepted throughout the world.

What does a 510K indicate?
This is FDA Registration and Approval to manufacture a product for the United States market.

Do CareMates™ have a 510K?
Yes. All CareMates™ gloves are medical grade, exceeding the ASTM minimum standards for a medical grade infection control device. A 510K number is issued to a particular manufacturer. The manufacturer's name appears on the box, assuring that you are getting what you pay for.

What does ASTM stand for?
American Standards of Testing and Measurement. For more information about ASTM standards, click here.

Where can I buy CareMates™ gloves?
Our central supply source is located in Chicago, Illinois, but we are distributed nationwide in the USA, throughout North America, and in Europe and Asia. CareMates™ can also be purchased online through our exclusive partner, CVS.

I want to sell CareMates™ gloves at my retail operation. How can I do this?
Only our authorized partners may sell CareMates™ to consumers. Contact us to receive more information about joining our dealer network.

Do you manufacture your own gloves?
Yes, in that we are a strategic alliance of four factories. The Malaysian factories have a vested interest in us, and we have a vested interest in them. The Chinese factories are privately held; we are their marketing arm in the United States.

Sanitizing Products

What is the recommended procedure for hand sanitizing without soap and water?
Just pour a small amount of CareMates™ Instant Hand Sanitizer on the palm of your hand and rub over your hands for at least 10 seconds to kill 99.9% of the germs and bacteria commonly associated with disease and infection. There is no need for rinsing.

Do I need to wash or sanitize my hands if I am going to be wearing gloves?
There is a high probability that pathogenic microorganisms from gloved hands will be transferred to food and other contact surfaces. Two studies demonstrated that if individuals do not wash their hands before putting on gloves, both the interior and exterior of the gloves become contaminated with surface microorganisms.

Why is hand hygiene so important?
Health: More than 2 million patients annually acquire an infection while hospitalized for other health problems, 88,000 of whom die as a direct or indirect result of these infections. In addition to the human toll, treating these infections is estimated to add nearly $5 billion to health care costs each year. Many of these infections have been linked to poor hand hygiene among clinicians.

Food: Each year over 80 million estimated cases of food poisoning occur in the United States, costing between $7.6 and $23 billion annually on healthcare and lost productivity. Food borne illness kills over 10,000 people each year. Over 70% of all outbreaks originate in foodservice operations and as many as 40% are the result of poor hand washing and cross-contamination. The average incident of food borne illness costs the responsible foodservice company more than $75,000 and often results in significant future sales losses. One national survey reported that 60% of foodservice personnel did not wash their hands as required by their positions, despite their important link in the complex multiphase process of cross-contamination.

Is there an advantage to using an instant hand sanitizer rather than washing my hands in soap and water?
It takes 4 times longer to properly wash your hands with soap and water than it does to use a hand sanitizer. The CDC estimates that in an eight-hour shift, intensive care unit nurses will save one hour by using an alcohol-based hand rub (hand sanitizer) instead of hand washing with soap and water. There is also no need to rinse or dry your hands after using CareMates™ Antiseptic Instant Hand Sanitizer, saving time and possible additional cross-contamination of towels or towel dispensers.

Will the alcohol-based hand sanitizer dry my hands to the point of irritation?
CareMates™ Antiseptic Instant Hand Sanitizer is fortified with aloe to moisturize and soothe the skin, even with repeated use.

Will my hands feel sticky after using the hand sanitizer?
No. The mild gel liquid leaves no stickiness or residue.

How many microorganisms will be killed by the instant hand sanitizer?
The instant hand sanitizer kills 99.9% of germs and bacteria.

What does the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend concerning hand hygiene?
“The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other healthcare-related organizations believe that cleaning your hands before and after having contact with patients is one of the most important measures for preventing the spread of bacteria in healthcare settings.” - Hand Hygiene Resource Center at www.handhygiene.org/educational_aids.asp