Hill-Rom Launches New Hospital Hand Hygiene Monitoring Solution

BATESVILLE, Ind., June 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Hospital-acquired infections can be deadly – and many times preventable. Nearly every major public health organization agrees that ineffective "hand-hygiene" (hand washing or using disinfecting sprays, wipes or gels) is one of the most significant contributors to the problem. Further compounding the problem is the fact that compliance rates among caregivers are difficult to track and often found to be low. 

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Hill-Rom has developed a new system to help hospitals monitor hand-hygiene rates: the Hill-Rom® Hand Hygiene Compliance Solution.  The new offering, which is now available to hospitals nationwide, provides real-time monitoring and staff reminders, simplifies reporting, and can use the same hardware and devices as other Hill-Rom real-time locating solutions.

"We've known for a very long time that hand washing is vital to preventing the spread of disease.  While many institutions have made significant progress in reducing the rates of hospital-acquired infections, there is opportunity to further reduce the burden of these infections with vigorous adherence to evidence-based hand-washing guidelines," says JoAnn Trybulski, PhD, ARNP, DPNAP, Chief Nursing Officer at the University of Miami Hospital. "We must make progress to improve compliance with these guidelines."

Hill-Rom Provides Integrated Solution for Hospitals

The new Hill-Rom Hand Hygiene Compliance Solution has been implemented in a number of institutions around the country that are participating in a pilot program. With more than 2.5 million hand-hygiene events recorded to date, the system is already helping hospital administrators better understand their staff's hand-hygiene patterns. As a result, most participating hospitals are finding they have been over-estimating compliance and can better identify where their missed opportunities are.(1)

"Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest to do, and that is certainly true for hospitals in achieving universal compliance with hand-hygiene guidelines," says Adam McMullin, Vice President and General Manager, Hill-Rom IT Solutions.  "The good news for hospitals is that a number of studies have shown that implementing a hand-hygiene monitoring program along with policies and interventions can improve hand-hygiene compliance rates throughout the institution."(2-4)

Hill-Rom's vast experience with thousands of hospitals was leveraged to create the Hill-Rom Hand Hygiene Compliance Solution, which includes a platform that uses badge-based locating technology to track hand-hygiene events throughout the hospital. The system enables automatic, continuous monitoring and recording of every time a staff member uses a hand-hygiene station. It proactively alerts caregivers and provides a gentle reminder upon entering a care environment.  Manual monitoring and reporting can be eliminated. Managers will have the ability to run reports for their staffs, providing valuable data for training and generating the data in a format to support reporting.

"Maintaining consistent hand-hygiene compliance among health care workers with direct patient access has proven to be an ongoing challenge for medical facilities throughout the nation," says Linda Jamison, MSN, RN, CIC, CCRC, Infection Prevention and Research Admin, UC Health-West Chester Hospital.  "Given the great importance of maintaining proper hand-hygiene practices as it relates to limiting the spread of harmful viruses, we are very excited about the introduction of a tool which will ultimately help our organization to more closely monitor and evaluate our staff's hand-washing practices. Having access to data which is collected through an automated mechanism will provide greater reliability as opposed to data collected through observational methodologies. We are excited by this new technology and are committed to exploring its functionality."

For more information about the Hill-Rom Hand Hygiene Compliance System, please visit
http://www.hill-rom.com/hand-hygiene

ABOUT HILL-ROM HOLDINGS, INC.

Hill-Rom is a leading worldwide manufacturer and provider of medical technologies and related services for the health care industry, including patient support systems, safe mobility and handling solutions, non-invasive therapeutic products for a variety of acute and chronic medical conditions, medical equipment rentals, surgical products and information technology solutions.  Hill-Rom's comprehensive product and service offerings are used by health care providers across the health care continuum and around the world in hospitals, extended care facilities and home care settings to enhance the safety and quality of patient care.

Hill-Rom...enhancing outcomes for patients and their caregivers.

www.hill-rom.com

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(1) Internal data on file.

(2) Jaffar A. Al-Tawfiq. Promoting and sustaining a hospital-wide, multifaceted hand hygiene program. American Journal of Infection Control 41 (2013) 482-6

(3) Sandra M. Swoboda. Electronic monitoring and voice prompts improve hand hygiene and decrease nosocomial infections in an intermediate care unit.  Crit Care Med 2004 Vol. 32, No. 2.

(4) Crystal Son.  Practically speaking: Rethinking hand hygiene improvement programs in health care settings.  American Journal of Infection Control. Vol. 39 No. 9

SOURCE Hill-Rom