Window Film for Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities

In hospitals, clinics and medical offices, window film mostly does three jobs: privacy at glass that looks into patient and staff spaces, a calmer and more finished look on that glass, and added delay at glass that protects something worth stealing, such as a pharmacy. Frosted and patterned films screen the view day and night while passing daylight. Film does not make a facility compliant with any privacy or pharmacy rule; those rules leave the choice of physical measures to the facility, and film can be one of them.

Key points

• AAA Glass Tint has completed more than 80 separate window film installations at Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin, from single doors to full hallways.
• Frosted and patterned films obscure the view in both directions, day and night; reflective films do not give privacy at night when the lights are on inside.
• HHS describes HIPAA’s reasonable safeguards as administrative, technical and physical, and does not require any specific physical measure such as film.
• Illinois pharmacy rules require the prescription area to be secured when no registrant is present, by walls, locked doors or electronic security approved by the state; DEA rules center on locked storage of controlled substances. Neither mentions glass.
• HHS states it does not consider facility restructuring a HIPAA requirement, and lists dividers, shields, curtains and screens as examples of physical barriers in intake areas.
• CDC infection control guidelines call for a risk assessment, with infection control involved, before work likely to create dust or water aerosols; the facility sets the precautions for each area.

Where does window film help in a healthcare facility?

Mostly at interior glass where someone needs privacy. At Advocate Sherman Hospital, our work has included hallways that look across a courtyard, patient and treatment rooms, offices, consult rooms, waiting areas, diagnostic areas and a surgical corridor, across more than 80 separate installations. Many of them were a single door or a few panels, added as each department asked. That is typical of healthcare work: requests come one space at a time, and the film should match each space rather than being the same everywhere. The details are in our Advocate Sherman Hospital case study.

Pharmacy windows are the other common request. There the goal is usually both privacy and security, which are two different products, covered below.

Which privacy film works where?

The choice depends on how much view, light and decoration each space should keep.

At Advocate Sherman, most installations were plain frost on offices, consult rooms and doors. Two hallways got custom graphics that AAA Glass Tint designed and the hospital approved: 24 windows in SOLYX Dusted Leaf patterned film in 2017, and 26 windows of frosted film with a custom design, 48 inches high, in 2018. For a gradient example, see our library gradient privacy film case study.

One point matters more in healthcare than almost anywhere else: frosted and patterned films keep their privacy at night. Reflective films give one-way privacy only while it is brighter outside than inside, and the effect reverses after dark. For rooms used around the clock, that usually rules reflective film out as the privacy solution. We explain why in Does Privacy Window Film Work at Night?

Every space is different, so we bring samples to try on the actual glass, and the facility approves the film before we install it.

Does privacy film make a facility HIPAA compliant?

No, and nobody selling film should say it does. The HHS Office for Civil Rights explains that the HIPAA Privacy Rule requires covered entities to have reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards, and that what is reasonable depends on the organization, its risks and the cost and burden of each safeguard. Perfect privacy is not the standard. HHS’s own examples include speaking quietly in public areas, avoiding patient names in hallways, and locking records rooms. Its guidance does not require window film, privacy screens or any other specific physical measure.

HHS answers the retrofit question directly in its FAQ on whether facilities must have private or soundproof rooms: the department does not consider facility restructuring to be a requirement. Its examples of reasonable physical safeguards in busy intake areas are barriers such as cubicles, dividers, shields, curtains or screens, used instead of separate rooms. Film is not on that list, but it is the same kind of measure: a physical barrier to view that a facility can choose where glass exposes patients, screens or paperwork.

So the decision belongs to the facility’s privacy and facilities teams. What we can tell you is what each film does to the view, by day and by night, on your glass.

What can window film do for pharmacy glass?

Two things, and they are separate decisions.

Privacy film screens the view into the pharmacy, of staff, screens and stock, the same way it does elsewhere in the building. HHS’s own pharmacy example of a reasonable safeguard is procedural, asking waiting customers to stand back from the counseling counter, which is a reminder that film works alongside how the space is run, not instead of it.

Security film is a different product. It holds broken glass together, and when it is attached to the frame with structural silicone, it keeps the filmed glass in the opening longer, so breaking through takes more time and effort. Our standard system for that is 8 mil clear Armorcoat with a four-sided DOWSIL 995 wet glaze attachment. It does not make glass unbreakable or strengthen the frame, and it is not bulletproof. We explain what it can and cannot do in What Security Window Film Can and Cannot Do.

Neither film satisfies a pharmacy security rule. In Illinois, the Pharmacy Practice Act rules require the prescription area to be secured from access by anyone who is not licensed whenever no registrant is present, by walling it off, locking doors or electronic security equipment, with the method approved by the state (68 Ill. Adm. Code 1330.600). The DEA’s physical security rule for practitioners centers on storing controlled substances in a securely locked, substantially constructed cabinet, with pharmacies allowed to disperse Schedule II to V stock instead (21 CFR 1301.75). Neither rule mentions windows or glass. Film can add delay at pharmacy glass alongside those measures, not in place of them.

How is film installed in an occupied hospital?

On the facility’s terms. The CDC’s guidelines for environmental infection control in healthcare facilities call for an infection control risk assessment, by a team that includes infection control, before construction, renovation or repair work likely to create dust or water aerosols. Film installation is quiet work, but it does use water and an application solution, and security film adds a structural silicone bead with a minor odor while it cures. The facility’s infection prevention and facilities teams decide what precautions apply to each area.

The American Society for Health Care Engineering describes how that decision is usually made. An interdisciplinary team, including infection preventionists, facility management, environmental services and contractors, rates the type of work and the risk to the patients in the affected area, and a precautions matrix combines the two to set the precautions, from minimizing dust and cleaning afterward up to negative air pressure and HEPA filtration. ASHE notes that many jurisdictions require these assessments through the Facility Guidelines Institute’s guidelines. The same film job can call for different precautions in an office corridor than near an operating room.

In practice that means we confirm the areas and the rules before we start: where we can work and when, what personal protective equipment is required, and how patient areas will be protected. We follow those requirements on every job. Work in patient areas is often scheduled around care, one room or one corridor at a time, and after-hours and weekend installation is available at additional cost.

How should film be cleaned in a healthcare setting?

Solar Gard recommends waiting 30 days before cleaning newly installed film, and then cleaning with a soft cloth or clean synthetic sponge and a mild soap solution, without bristle brushes or abrasive sponges. Healthcare facilities often use stronger disinfectants on glass, so ask for the manufacturer’s guidance on the specific products your environmental services team uses before the film goes in. We can get that answer for the films we propose.

What about antimicrobial window film?

It is a different product from privacy film, and it is often misunderstood. Solar Gard 4 Mil AM is a clear film for high-touch flat surfaces, such as glass, entryways, partitions, countertops and device screens. Its surface coating carries BioCote silver-ion technology, which Solar Gard says inhibits the growth of odor- and stain-causing microbes on the film’s own surface. The film has a scratch-resistant hardcoat and a removable adhesive, so it can be replaced as it wears.

What it does not do matters more in a healthcare building. Solar Gard states plainly that the BioCote technology does not protect users or others against disease-causing bacteria, germs, viruses or other harmful organisms, and that it is not a substitute for good hygiene or cleaning practices. That limit is not just caution. Under EPA’s treated article rule, a product treated to protect itself may claim protection of the article, and EPA does not extend that exemption to public health claims against human pathogens. Antimicrobial film is a replaceable protective surface designed to inhibit certain microbes on the film itself. It should not be represented as a measure that prevents infection or disease transmission.

On cleaning, Solar Gard’s data sheet for 4 Mil AM lists the hardcoat as resistant to disinfectants such as Lysol, along with water, oils, mild acids and solvents. It also lists visible light transmittance above 90 percent and haze of 0.80 percent, measured by ASTM D1003. AAA Glass Tint can supply 4 Mil AM through Solar Gard; if you are considering it, we will start with a mockup on your surfaces.

What else do healthcare facilities ask about window film?

Can film be added one room at a time?

Yes. Many of our installations at Advocate Sherman Hospital were a single door or a few panels, added as departments needed them.

Can the film carry our own design?

Yes. We designed the hallway graphics at Advocate Sherman Hospital, the hospital approved them, and we cut and installed them in patterned and frosted film.

Does frosted film block daylight?

No. Frosted and patterned films are translucent, so they blur the view but pass light. Designs with clear areas keep even more light and some view.

What is the next step?

Walk the spaces that need privacy or security and list them by type: room doors, consult and office fronts, hallways, pharmacy glass. Then have the glass and the options looked at in place, with samples. We do not subcontract installation; our own crews do the work. See our privacy window film and decorative window film services, or request a free assessment.