INF ECTION P R EVENTION
can use chemical indicators which are placed around the area. The indicators change colour to confirm the efficacy of the cycle.
Technology boosting the hand hygiene culture
In healthcare settings, clean hands save lives. While the COVID-19 outbreak increased adoption of hand hygiene measures at first, studies show a 50% compliance rate for hand hygiene, on average, among healthcare staff.8
compliance monitoring system may help reduce the risk of HCAIs and help improve patient safety.11
Becoming more predictive The ultimate goal is to prevent
However, it
is extremely resource-intensive and imprecise to monitor hand hygiene in a hospital through direct observations. Technology can play a role, both in measuring hand hygiene moments but also in nudging healthcare workers to not forget this life saving behaviour at critical times. Partnering with Danish MedTech
company, Sani Nudge, Ecolab is bringing the Hand Hygiene Compliance Measurement (HHCM) System to healthcare organisations. The digitally connected technology to systematically monitor and improve hand hygiene in healthcare settings has already proven very effective in helping to reduce HCAIs in North America.
The HHCM System combines IoT sensors and wireless hygiene measurement technology installed on patient beds and healthcare staff badges with connected dispensers to capture and anonymously record individual hand hygiene practices in patient rooms. The system saves many hours of in person monitoring and addresses the biases and inaccuracies associated, resulting in quality, reliable data. It provides actionable guidance helping improve safe patient interactions and compiles automated dashboards.
In line with GDPR regulations, the data collected by the system deliver anonymised reports that the healthcare facility can leverage to develop tailored trainings and campaigns to address issues identified by the system. Ecolab will also provide further insights and infection prevention strategies to help improve the hand hygiene culture and compliance at the hospital.
The solution developed by Sani Nudge, integrated into the Ecolab HHCM system, is already installed at various hospitals across Europe. In Denmark, it dramatically improved hand hygiene behaviour before and after patient contact.9,10
contaminations in healthcare settings before they happen. The European Commission estimates than half of the more than eight million infections occurring across Europe every year are easily preventable. The routine of a hospital gets frantic and caring for patients and treating their diseases can be unpredictable. Doctors and nurses make life-saving decisions all the time and as infection prevention experts, our mission is to provide the healthy environment they can heal patients in. Ultimately, robots, big data, internet of things, artificial intelligence will never replace human judgement, but it can inform our decision making. The same way a doctor makes a treatment decision based on drugs safety testing or patient’s history, we have to use expertise and capture data to outsmart the pathogens. Robots will be able to analyse the level of cleanliness of a room and make a program recommendation faster than any human. It will execute consistently and be able to verify results again and again. Artificial intelligence can anticipate when an outbreak might occur, spot a small pattern in behaviours, and help re-enforce positive actions to prevent infections from spreading.
CSJ
References 1 Sangeeta Mehta, Flavia Machado, Arthur Kwizera, Laurent Papazian, Marc Moss, Élie Azoulay, Margaret Herridge COVID-19: a heavy toll on healthcare workers, The Lancet,
www.thelancet. com/respiratory Published online February 5, 2021
https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00068-0 3
2 The Guardian, ‘Up to 20% of hospital patients with COVID-19 caught it at hospital’, May 17, 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/17/ hospital-patients-england-coronavirus-covid-19
3
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/ detail/en/ip_20_2420
4 Lindsley WG, McClelland TL, Neu DT, et al. Ambulance disinfection using Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI): Effects of fixture location and surface reflectivity. J Occup Environ Hyg. 2018;15(1):1-12. doi:10.1080/15459624.2017.137 6067
In a short period
of time, it also helped reduce staff sick leave by 72%.
In addition, two years after the monitoring system’s installation in five US hospitals with a total of 1,609 beds, a retrospective study also found that hand hygiene compliance levels in all five hospitals increased to 86- 90%. More importantly, all five hospitals experienced a decrease in total annual HCAI rates, suggesting that a hand hygiene
MAY 2021
5 Jefferson, J, et al, A Novel Technique for Identifying Opportunities to Improve Environmental Hygiene in the Operating Room. AORN J, 2011 Mar;93(3):358- 64. doi: 10.1016/
j.aorn.2010.08.022.
6 Iacobucci, G. How is the pandemic affecting non- covid services? BMJ 2021; 372 :n215
7 COVIDSurg Collaborative. Elective surgery cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic: global predictive modelling to inform surgical recovery plans. Br J Surg 2020;
https://doi.org/10.1002/ bjs.11746
8 Roshan R, Feroz AS, Rafique Z, Virani N. Rigorous Hand Hygiene Practices Among Health Care Workers Reduce Hospital-Associated Infections During the COVID-19 Pandemic. J Prim Care Community Health. 2020;11:2150132720943331. doi:10.1177/2150132720943331
9 Iversen AM, Kavalaris CP, Hansen R, Hansen MB, Alexander R, Kostadinov K, Holt J, Kristensen B, Knudsen JD, Møller JK, Ellermann-Eriksen S. Clinical experiences with a new system for automated hand hygiene monitoring: A prospective observational study. Am J Infect Control. 2020 May;48(5):527- 533. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2019.09.003. Epub 2019 Oct 18. PMID: 31635879.
10 Iversen AM, Stangerup, M, From-Hansen M, Hansen, R, Palasin Sode L, Kostadinov, K, Hansen, MB, Calum, H, Ellermann-Eriksen, S, Knudsen, J. Light-guided nudging and data-driven performance feedback improve hand hygiene compliance among nurses and doctors.. Am J Infect Control. 2020 Nov 10;S0196-6553(20)30991-3. doi: 10.1016/j. ajic.2020.11.007. PMID: 33186676
11
https://www.ecolab.com/stories/2019%20 sustainability%20report%20stories/using-digital- insights-to-help-reduce-hospital-infection-rates
About the author
Howard Wilkinson is the area vice president healthcare – Northern Europe & Benelux, for Ecolab. Howard joined Ecolab in 2019 and since then has driven significant growth and repositioned the business as a solutions and healthcare technology partner. Prior to Ecolab, Howard worked for General Electric (GE) for 23-years, latterly as general manager for GE Healthcare Service Northern Europe, where he introduced the first biomedical asset management deals to the NHS. Prior to this, he held various European leadership, quality and commercial roles in manufacturing, and equipment leasing businesses. Howard holds a BA (Hons) in Business Studies from Nottingham Trent University and a Diploma - DipM in Marketing from the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing.
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