Innovative Hand Hygiene Monitoring Technology Being Used in AHN Hospitals

Allegheny Health Network’s (AHN) Allegheny General Hospital (AGH) is piloting a novel technology that electronically monitors caregiver hand hygiene compliance. Called the Ecolab electronic monitoring system, AHN envisions implementing the resource at each of its 10 acute care and community hospitals in the coming months as part of the organization’s comprehensive patient care quality protocols.

“Our highest priority is delivering safe, patient-centered care across all of our clinical facilities at AHN, and hand hygiene remains the number one way to promote a safe clinical environment and prevent hospital-acquired infections,” said Amy Cotton, DNP, Senior Vice President, Quality & Safety for AHN.

It is estimated that one in every 25 hospitalized patients in America experiences a preventable hospital-acquired infection. Nearly a million patients lose their lives to these infections each year and the financial cost annually exceeds a billion dollars.

Standard hospital protocols call for patient care staff to practice hand hygiene upon entering and leaving patient rooms—washing in and washing out—and between examining patients. To monitor and ensure staff comply with this policy, most hospitals and health systems designate individuals to observe their peers anonymously and then compile their findings into reports that are shared with patient quality and safety leaders as well as infection prevention leadership.

“Across the hospitals that comprise our network, we were devoting approximately 12,000 hours of labor each year to non-scientific manual auditing of staff hand hygiene practices,” said Dr. Cotton. “Those are team member hours that are far better spent supporting patient care. The pandemic served to shine a spotlight on how we could—and should—be leveraging innovation and technology to better support patient safety, and the Ecolab system is a 24/7, real-time technological solution that helps us overcome the significant limitations of our conventional approach to this important process.”

“Our highest priority is delivering safe, patient-centered care across all of our clinical facilities at AHN, and hand hygiene remains the number one way to promote a safe clinical environment and prevent hospital-acquired infections,” said Amy Cotton, DNP, Senior Vice President, Quality & Safety for AHN.

The core of the Ecolab system is the “patient zone,” an electronically monitored area set up around the patient’s bed that will detect every caregiver engagement and hand hygiene opportunity.  Caregivers wear an Ecolab badge, and as they enter the patient room and sanitize their hands, the badge reflects green, signaling it’s safe to enter the patient zone.

Once the caregiver leaves the patient and sanitizes once more, the badge again reflects green, signifying compliance. Should the caregiver forget, the badge will provide a reminder, reflecting red and emitting a chirping sound.

Studies show that immediate feedback motivates individuals to clean their hands far more effectively than a report of activity compliance. The system is relatively easy to use, requiring minimal end user education.

“All caregivers need to do is wear the Ecolab badge during their working hours,” said Marisa McCabe, project manager for the AHN Ecolab pilot study. “The technology does all the work.”

“The Ecolab technology solution provides us with an efficient and consistent way to measure this routine patient safety practice, which will ultimately result in higher quality of care for our patients,” said Dr. Cotton.

The results of the pilot program conducted at AGH for a 12-month period were convincing. “Over the course of that year, we saw hospital-acquired infections drop by 16 percent, and hand hygiene compliance was strong across the board.  We believe that enhanced compliance played a significant part in that reduction,” said Juliet Ferrelli, Director of Infection Prevention for AHN.

Plans are for Ecolab to be implemented throughout AHN hospitals by year’s end.