How electronic hand hygiene monitoring improves HAI prevention
By BioVigil
No patient should acquire an infection because of care received in the hospital or long-term care facility. Unfortunately, healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are the most common complication of hospital care, and a leading cause of death in the U.S.
And yet, one of the most reliable ways to prevent HAIs is quite simple – proper hand hygiene. That’s one reason why hand hygiene measures make up a significant portion of a hospital’s Leapfrog patient safety score.
HAIs are frequently spread through either direct or indirect contact with contaminated surfaces or equipment. Healthcare workers’ hands often serve as vectors for transferring pathogens from one patient to another or from contaminated surfaces to patients. Effective hand hygiene prevents these transmission pathways, which diminishes the risk of infection.
A growing problem
A 2015 survey estimates that there were 687,000 HAIs in acute care hospitals, and 72,000 hospital patients with HAIs died during their hospitalization.
Hospital HAIs were showing a downward trend from 2015 to 2000. Then during the pandemic, HAIs drastically spiked in number and mortality. A 2022 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows HAIs are trending downward again, but in long-term and other care facilities, HAIs are rising.
A simple solution
Simply adhering to hand hygiene protocols is one of the most effective means of preventing HAIs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), proper hand hygiene prevents up to 50% of avoidable HAIs, including those affecting healthcare workers.
WHO Guidelines are based on systematic reviews and meta-analyses that provide strong evidence of reduced HAI from hand hygiene. The guidelines show how improved hand hygiene compliance can lead to significant reductions in infection rates, particularly in intensive care units and surgical settings.
Today, healthcare facilities have procedures and standards in place for their staff to perform appropriate hand hygiene, and to document their compliance with hand hygiene standards.
For example, healthcare facilities aiming to earn a high grade on the Leapfrog patient safety evaluation need to collect hand hygiene compliance data on at least 200 hand hygiene opportunities each month, in each patient care unit.
The standard way to collect this data is through direct observation. This involves a person observing staff member’s hand hygiene routines on a particular hospital unit, and reporting what they see according to a set of guidelines. This method is laborious, slow, and not fully accurate.
A better solution
A better method of achieving and documenting proper hand hygiene is an electronic hand hygiene monitoring solution.
Some electronic systems monitor hand hygiene at a group level, by simply tallying the frequency of soap or sanitizer distribution from a dispenser. Because there is no user-specific assignment, it is difficult to tell whether the actions come from staff, patients, or visitors when employing group monitoring systems to assess compliance in particular hospital units.
Other electronic systems, such as BioVigil, provide individual level monitoring. This enables a facility to determine a precise level of compliance, by person or by room.
BioVigil uses room beacons connected to individual user badges to monitor when healthcare workers enter and exit a patient room, and when they perform hand hygiene either with hand sanitizer or soap and water. It’s the only system where badge sensors can detect alcohol vapor on users’ hands, confirming their use of hand sanitizer.
The system collects data that is linked to each user’s badge, enabling care teams to monitor hand hygiene compliance, track cross contamination, and conduct quick and thorough contact-tracing to pinpoint sources of infection should they occur, and prevent future transmission.
The BioVigil system has helped partners across the country improve hand hygiene behavior, reduce HAIs by up to 83%, achieve and sustain 97% hand hygiene compliance, and improve LeapFrog quality grades. For example,
- A New York hospital reduced the relative risk of CAUTIS by 45% and CLABSIS by 55%.
- A California hospital reduced C. diff infections by 55% within six months of implementing the BioVigil system.
- A New Jersey health group had a 100% reduction in CAUTI healthcare acquired infections; and a 33% reduction in CLABSI healthcare acquired infections.
A real solution
When the staff at Limestone Medical Center in Groesbeck, Texas, began using BioVigil, their observations increased from 7,000 manual observations per month to nearly 70,000 observations recorded per month – a 900% increase!
In addition, by monitoring individual level hand hygiene, they were able to identify and mitigate sources of cross-contamination, drastically reducing their cross-contamination rate by 84%. Their hand hygiene compliance rate remains above 95%.
See more of their story here: https://biovigil.com/limestone-success/
A safer future
As hospitals across the country begin to adapt new technologies like automated hand hygiene monitoring, we expect to see a reduction in HAIs over the next decade, preventing unnecessary complications and deaths.