Clean Hands – Safe Hands (APIC booth #1736) has announced the release of new data showing a decrease in healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) by an average of 61.4 percent across its 10 most recent hospital installations. Improvements were statistically significant, ranging from 45-81 percent. In every case, the Clean Hands – Safe Hands technology was installed and its patent-pending process was followed for six months.
The Clean Hands – Safe Hands system includes a Real-Time Voice Reminder, which is a human voice offering healthcare providers a gentle reminder to “please sanitize” if they forget upon entering or exiting a patient’s room.
In addition to an overall reduction in HAIs at each hospital, each type of infection was reduced as well. HAI data from the 10 hospital installations was aggregated and analyzed by infection type, comparing before and after the voice reminder was turned on. This includes CLABSI (central line-associated blood stream infections), CAUTI (catheter-associated urinary tract infections), C. diff (Clostridium difficile), MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and VAE (ventilator-associated events). Here, too, there were statistically significant reductions in every type of HAI.
Due to the decrease in HAIs, these hospitals are estimated to prevent 372 HAIs a year. This translates to a direct cost savings of over $9.5 million annually and 39 lives saved per year.
Nancy Osborn, manager of infection prevention and epidemiology at The Medical Center, Navicent Health, has worked in infection prevention for 38 years and is excited by the impact Clean Hands - Safe Hands has made. She reported, “I’ve been through AIDS, West Nile Virus, Ebola and more, but the last two years have been the most exciting. The addition of Clean Hands – Safe Hands to our standard infection prevention practices resulted in significant infection rate reduction.”
The use of technology is more effective in increasing hand hygiene performance and reducing HAIs than the traditional method of secret shoppers conducting direct observation. Direct observation is subject to human bias and is limited by small samples sizes. Human observers typically only monitor around 50 hand hygiene opportunities per month in a 50-bed hospital. Technology can monitor about 60,000 hand hygiene opportunities in that same hospital, without human bias. In addition, automated systems, such as Clean Hands – Safe Hands, can remind providers to clean their hands in the moment, improving results in real-time.
