GAINESVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- HyGreen, Inc. reports today that 2011 data out of Miami Children’s Hospital shows an average hand washing rate of 97.4% while using the HyGreen® Hand Hygiene Reminding and Recording System.
Why is hand washing important? Studies show that hand washing is the simplest and most effective way to reduce healthcare associated infections (HAIs). Despite this, hand hygiene in hospitals is low, averaging 40%. Lack of hand washing has lead to the 1.7 million infections recorded in the U.S. each year adding more than $40 billion annually to U.S. healthcare costs.
To increase hand hygiene, Miami Children’s Hospital (MCH), a leader in pediatric care, decided to make a bold move to ensure patient safety. As early adopters of innovative technology, MCH decided to install an electronic hand hygiene monitoring system in one unit to evaluate its ability to increase hand hygiene.
Barbara Simmonds, RN, CIC at MCH said, “We wanted a system that was easy to install, had the ability to remind personnel to carry out hand hygiene between patients, had real-time reporting capabilities, would pay for itself and be cost effective. HyGreen® was the only system which met all our criteria.”
In the first few weeks, the HyGreen® system was impacting hand hygiene. “Just in the first six weeks of using the new system (HyGreen®) we registered in one unit, 12,000 individual observations. It has increased our observation rate significantly. Under our previous system (secret shopper) we wouldn't have had that many observations in a year,” reported Ms. Simmonds.
This success led to an additional purchase of HyGreen® to cover another 120 beds.
“An average compliance rate of 97.43% is an impressive number when compared with studies reporting average hand hygiene compliance rates in U.S. hospitals at 40%,” says Craig Davenport, HyGreen CEO. “We also continue to see a number of hospitals who believe that healthcare worker 'self reporting' is an accurate way to evaluate hand hygiene rates. It is really startling and frankly disappointing. We are proud to be a partner with a hospital as innovative as Miami Children’s Hospital. Their continuing efforts to improve patient safety are to be applauded.”
“With HyGreen®, we’ve been able to get complete, accurate, and unbiased data on hand hygiene compliance,” says Dr. Deise Granado-Villar, Chief Medical Officer at MCH. “Also, it paid for itself with the avoidance of one infection.”
On Tuesday, February 28th, HyGreen® will be holding a webinar on its hand hygiene system. To register, logon to www.hygreeninc.com.
CONTACT:
HyGreen, Inc.
Elena Fraser, 877-574-9473
[email protected]
KEYWORDS: United States North America Florida
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Health Hospitals General Health
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