DebMed® Announces Innovative New Hand Hygiene Solution Based on Data from More than Eight Million Hand Hygiene Events

CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- DebMed®, creator of the world's first electronic hand hygiene compliance monitoring system based on the World Health Organization's (WHO's) Five Moments for Hand Hygiene, announced today a new sanitizer technology developed from an analysis of data provided from the DebMed GMS™ system. The analysis, drawn from real-time operating hospital environments, shows that nine out of 10 of healthcare workers access hand sanitizer using only one push of a dispenser. As a result, DebMed has created a new dispensing technology called Optidose™ that delivers the optimal amount of sanitizer required to complete a proper hand sanitization with just one dose.

"DebMed is committed to innovation in healthcare hand hygiene solutions in order to help decrease the number of healthcare associated infections. We have the unique advantage of the DebMed GMS system which allows us to draw real-time usage data, and as a result, we have been able to mobilize our research and development efforts to provide healthcare facilities with a practical new technology to improve hand hygiene quality and patient safety," said Didier Bouton, President of DebMed.

Drawing on the data from more than eight million hand hygiene events captured by the DebMed GMS (Group Monitoring System) over eight months, DebMed has created Optidose™, the first single-dose foaming sanitizer technology to deliver the appropriate volume of sanitizer to achieve a proper hand sanitization. The combination of the Optidose dispensing technology with the DebMed InstantFOAM™ 70 percent alcohol sanitizer exceeds the rigid requirements of the Healthcare Personnel Handwash (HCPHW) test in a single 1.5 mL dose.

A key element of DebMed Optidose is that it achieves the optimal "wet time" of 15 to 20 seconds as recommended by WHO, enabling healthcare workers to perform a proper and complete hand sanitizing event. This combination of proper "dose" and "wet time" is critical to preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs). HAIs are an ongoing issue in hospitals, with one in twenty patients infected with a HAI and nearly 100,000 deaths each year from these infections, at an annual hospital cost in excess of $30 billion. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), over one half of all hospital infections are preventable.

"With HAIs being an ongoing health and cost issue, DebMed is providing a much needed and practical solution," says Linda Riley, Infection Prevention Coordinator, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Northampton, Mass. "Patient safety is of utmost concern and this system meets a critical need for hospitals."

For more information on Optidose and other hand hygiene solutions from DebMed, visit the company at the American Professionals in Infection Control (APIC) Annual Meeting, booth #921.

About DebMed®
DebMed is the health care program of the Deb Group. The DebMed program offers innovative hand hygiene products, dispensing systems and tools to support hand hygiene compliance. The DebMed GMS (Group Monitoring System) is the world's first group monitoring system to report hand hygiene compliance rates in real-time using the World Health Organization's (WHO) "Five Moments for Hand Hygiene." For more information, visit www.debmed.com.

About Deb Group
Possessing international scale and strong local market presence, Deb Group provides innovative skin care programs for all types of workplace and public environments, spanning industrial, commercial, healthcare and food sectors. Headquartered in the United Kingdom with US operations based in Charlotte, NC, Deb Group is comprised of 21 companies operating in 16 countries. For more information, visit www.debgroup.com.

For media inquiries, contact: Holly Jespersen, 203-504-8230 x132, [email protected]

SOURCE DebMed(R)