Industry data indicate a clear and compelling clinical need and business case for utilizing electronic monitoring technology to improve hand hygiene compliance: Growing concern about the frequency of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) has made hand hygiene an increasingly important topic for hospital administrators.
- 722,000 infections reported each year1
- Resulting in 75,000 deaths each year, attributable to HAI’s1
- 1 out of every 20 hospitalized patients will contract an HAI1
- Annual attributable cost of HAI’s is $20-40 billion dollars2
- Represent a major threat to patient safety3
- Hand Hygiene Compliance rates in the U.S. is less than 50%4
Growing concern about the frequency of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) has made hand hygiene an increasingly important topic for hospital administrators. And, current methods of measuring hand hygiene compliance do not accurately reflect performance.
1. http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/surveillance/index.html, with reference to full report (CDC HAI Prevalence Survey, Magill SS, Edwards JR, Bamberg W, et al. Multistate Point-Prevalence Survey of Health Care - Associated Infections. External Web Site Icon N Engl J Med 2014;370:1198-208.)
2. Scott, Douglas. The Direct Medical costs of Healthcare-Associated Infections in U.S. Hospitals and the Benefits of Prevention. Center for Infectious Diseases Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. March 2009
3. Ted Pincock RN, CIC , Paul Bernstein RN, CIC, Shawn Warthman MBA, Elizabeth Holst BA Bundling hand hygiene interventions and measurement to decrease health care associated infections. American Journal of Infection Control 40 (2012) S18-S27
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings: Recommendations of the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee and the HICPAC/SHEA/APIC/IDSA Hand Hygiene Task Force. MMWR 2002;51(No. RR-16):[22].
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