New SCA Survey in North America Shows Hand Washing Awareness Affects U.S. Patient Experience

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, SCA, the producer of the Tork® brand of Away-from-Home professional hygiene products, announces findings from a U.S. patient survey conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, revealing that 93% of healthcare facility patients and visitors agree that hand hygiene is more important in healthcare settings compared to other public places. Of the respondents, all of whom had visited a healthcare facility over the past year, nearly three quarters (71%) are concerned about acquiring a healthcare associated infection (HAI) – an infection obtained from being at a health care facility. Likewise, 96% of respondents agree that they would be concerned if healthcare professionals were not practicing good hand hygiene, while similar proportions further agree that they would not want to be treated by a healthcare professional who does not practice good hand hygiene (96%).

The survey was conducted in conjunction with the launch of the Tork Healthy Hands website, a new resource for healthcare facilities, providing free materials to promote hand hygiene compliance because proper hand hygiene is the number one way to reduce infections in health care facilities. The site features a variety of hand hygiene insights, statistics and reminders, as well as a selection of visual designs. Healthcare facilities can select a design style, choose the information to be featured, and add their own logo to build out free, customized hand hygiene signage.

The site will be regularly refreshed with new designs and information, enabling hospitals, doctors' offices, and long-term care facilities to frequently update hand hygiene signage. Changing up hand hygiene communications on a regular basis keeps messages from wearing out with employees, ultimately helping hand hygiene protocol to stay top of mind, increasing compliance and reducing HAIs.

Healthcare workers are invited to provide feedback at [email protected] in order to help make the Tork Healthy Hands website even more useful.  

"In today's health care environment one of the biggest contributors to slipping bottom lines are HAIs, as they are extremely expensive for facilities due to readmissions, length of stay, and other direct and indirect costs, as well as reducing Medicare reimbursements," said Tom Bergin, health care marketing director for SCA's Away from Home Professional Hygiene business in North America. "SCA's aim is to help institutions reduce HAIs by providing free resources on the Tork Healthy Hands site to keep staff educated on hand hygiene protocol, and, therefore, reduce incidence of HAIs."

Hand hygiene signage improves patient perception
While hand hygiene may be an obvious patient consideration, a surprising number of patients and visitors also agreed that hand washing signage plays a role in how they view a facility's safety and quality of care. Specifically, hand washing signage makes them feel more confident about both a facility's cleanliness (84%) and the quality of care being given (81%). Similarly, 83% say they would prefer to visit a healthcare facility that displays hand washing signage over one that does not. While the presence of signage has a positive impact, the lack of it can have a negative one; nearly six in ten (57%) feel that not seeing hand washing signage makes them feel like the healthcare facility does not follow best hygiene practices.

When asked what types of messages are most important for hand washing signage at healthcare facilities to communicate, reminders to employees (doctors, nurses, clinical staff) to wash their hands (69%) take the lead, followed by a message about the importance of washing hands (52%). Two in five emphasize the importance of having information about how to properly wash hands (45%). The Tork Healthy Hands website offers content to cover all these topics, designed to create hand hygiene signage to improve patient perception and experience, as well as improving employee compliance. 

The Tork Healthy Hands website is live in May 2015 at www.torkhealthyhands.com. To learn more about Tork Away-from-Home professional hygiene products hygiene, visit www.talktork.com.

About the survey
The survey has been executed by Ipsos Public Affairs on commission by SCA from April 3 - 6, 2015. For the survey, a sample of 1,212 U.S. adults age 18 and over was interviewed online, including 1,080 respondents who have visited or were a patient at a healthcare facility in the past year.

About Tork
The Tork brand offers professional hygiene products and services to customers ranging from restaurants and healthcare facilities to offices, schools and industries. Products include dispensers, paper towels, toilet tissue, soap, napkins, and industrial and kitchen wipers. Through expertise in hygiene, functional design and sustainability, Tork has become a market leader. Tork is a global brand of SCA, and a committed partner to customers in over 80 countries. To keep up with the latest Tork news and innovations, please visit: torkusa.com or tork.ca. 

About SCA
In North America, SCA produces the Tork line of dispensers, towels, tissue, soap, napkins and wipers used in commercial settings such as office buildings, restaurants, schools and healthcare facilities and the TENA^® line of incontinence care products used by consumers at home and in healthcare facilities. TENA and Tork are the global leading brands in their categories. For more information visit www.sca.com/us. 

Globally, SCA is a leading hygiene and forest products company. We develop and produce sustainable personal care, tissue and forest products. Sales are conducted in about 100 countries under many strong brands, including the leading global brands TENA and Tork, and many regional brands.  As Europe's largest private forest owner, we put great emphasis on sustainable forest management.  SCA has about 44,000 employees. Sales in 2014 amounted to $15 billion. SCA was founded in 1929, has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, and is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm stock exchange. More information at www.sca.com.

Sustainability
SCA delivers sustainable solutions with added value for our customers from safe, resource efficient and environmentally sound sourcing, production and development. Recent third party accreditations for the SCA sustainability work include Dow Jones Sustainability Index 2013, the WWF Environmental Paper Company Index 2013, and Ethisphere – World's Most Ethical Companies 2014.

CONTACT: Alina Rubezhova, 212-445-8203, [email protected]

SOURCE SCA Americas

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