Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 11th April 2024 Issue no. 1109
Your industry news - first
The original and best - for over 20 years!
We strongly recommend viewing Cleanzine full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.
Three-way partnership will help reduce HAIs
Hill-Rom, a global provider of clinical workflow solutions for hospitals, has announced major partnerships with real-time healthcare patient flow systems specialist TeleTracking Technologies, and hygiene company Gojo, to co-market integrations with its Hand Hygiene Compliance Solution.
Hand hygiene plays an enormous role in preventing healthcare-acquired infections, yet many hospitals struggle to achieve even 50% compliance with recommended protocols. The Hill-Rom system continually monitors the patient care environment, reminding key personnel about critical handwashing events and providing the data for sustainability. Institutions that have implemented the system have experienced a significant increase in their hand hygiene compliance.
"The Hill-Rom Hand Hygiene Compliance Solution helps hospitals address significant challenges they face responding to regulatory requirements," says the company's Vice President and General Manager, Adam McMullin. "The Solution is a great example of our technology platform, which is designed to automate the clinical environment, and help enhance productivity and safety, as well as the patient experience."
Hill-Rom and Gojo have developed an integrated hand-hygiene solution for hospitals and healthcare facilities to effectively monitor hand-hygiene compliance, whereby Gojo Smartlink Technology is installed into Provon soap and Purell hand sanitiser dispensers and then works with the Hill-Rom real-time locating solution (RTLS). The hands-free dispenser was designed for the healthcare environment and features an internal wireless transmitter that lights up an external window when a staff member uses the dispenser and that data is recorded.
Real-time locating solutions are invaluable in today's overstretched hospitals. Without them, nurses and other staff may waste countless hours searching for equipment, supplies or even fellow staff members and following inefficient procedures, all of which take away time from their primary mission: patient care.
AssetTracking from TeleTracking Technologies is a leading RTLS that hospitals depend on for usable information on equipment and supplies for staff throughout the organisation, from a nurse in need of specific supplies for a patient to an IT manager trying to locate equipment for preventative maintenance. The partnership will provide hospitals with the ability to use the same locating infrastructure to facilitate solutions that provide at-a-glance visibility to everything from equipment location to staff workflow and hand hygiene compliance.
"The name Gojo is synonymous with hand hygiene around the world," says Adam McMullin. "Hospitals now have the opportunity to leverage the impact of two trusted brands to support their efforts at increasing hand-hygiene compliance and fighting HAIs.
"RTLS systems ensure nurses and other staff members can quickly put their hands on what they need, when they need it. Now, the same locating technology will also be able to measure if those hands are clean. We are pleased to be working with TeleTracking, a leader in the field, to provide this integration for customers of both systems."
Gojo Compliance Programme Director, North America, Jeff Hall says: "Engaging in this critical work with a healthcare leader like Hill-Rom is significant. The biggest reason an electronic monitoring system is necessary is that it allows for measurement and accountability. To help improve hand hygiene, we need to give hospitals the tools to measure it and the clinical education resources to interpret the data."
Mike Gallup, President, TeleTracking Technologies, adds: "We are committed to leveraging the power of technology to sustain and improve processes within a hospital to improve patient care. Our partnership with Hill-Rom is an exciting extension of that mission, helping our customers bring together an essential monitoring system and provide another vital view of their organisation's daily operations."
The Hill-Rom Hand Hygiene Compliance Solution has tracked millions of hand-hygiene events. The system uses badge-based locating technology offering automatic, continuous monitoring and recording of every time a staff member uses a hand-hygiene station. It alerts caregivers by providing a gentle reminder upon entering a care environment. All of this happens without adding steps to the clinical workflow.
Once installed, the system creates a wireless web of connectivity in the patient care environment that can be leveraged beyond its primary role in tracking, reminding and reporting hand hygiene events, whether via Nurse Call, Smart Bed Connectivity, Staff Locating or a wide array of other real-time locating needs.
For over two decades, TeleTracking Technologies has helped hospitals achieve better patient flow through automation and process redesign that takes the time lag out of daily hospital operations. Today, TeleTracking provides an end-to-end platform which optimises operations enterprise-wide in real-time. Real-Time Capacity Management solutions deliver peak operational performance by automating as many of the physical functions of the hospital as possible and monitoring them in real time to increase efficiency in the delivery of care. This tighter operational control drives out waste (both time and resources) and improves efficiencies, while still making sure that patients get to the right place at the right time with the right resources. TeleTracking provides process planning, patient flow redesign and asset management optimisation through its consulting division.
www.hill-rom.com
www.teletracking.com
www.gojo.com
27th February 2014