AJIC: American Journal of Infection Control
Volume 38, Issue 7 , Pages 518-522, September 2010

Defining the configuration of a hand hygiene monitoring system

  • Veronique M. Boscart, RN, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, iDAPT—Intelligent Design for Adaptation, Participation, and Technology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    • L. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence to Veronique Boscart, RN, PhD, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, 130 Dunn Ave, Suite N226, Toronto, Ontario, M6K 2R7, Canada.
    • ,
  • Alexander I. Levchenko, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, iDAPT—Intelligent Design for Adaptation, Participation, and Technology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    • ,
  • Geoff R. Fernie, PhD, PEng

      Affiliations

    • Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, iDAPT—Intelligent Design for Adaptation, Participation, and Technology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    • Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

published online 07 June 2010.

Background

Inadequate hand hygiene (HH) by staff leads to hospital-acquired infections, high morbidity, and mortality rates for patients and a growing economic impact. The Toronto Rehabilitation Institute developed a different approach to measure and increase HH frequency, that is, a monitoring system that automatically detects HH opportunities associated with approaching and leaving patient areas. The aim of this study was to collect and classify data on HH opportunities to (1) evaluate the percentage of opportunities that the system could detect and (2) identify the system configuration.

Methods

An observational study collected time-stamped data on HH opportunities and methods of nurses on a complex care unit. Data were processed according to the Ministry of Health of Ontario, Canada. The data were subsequently classified corresponding to the motion patterns of nurses to identify areas that need to be controlled by the system.

Results

A total of 1093 HH opportunities were recorded over 94 hours from 15 nurses, with 919 opportunities associated with entering or leaving patient environments.

Conclusion

The monitoring system would be able to detect and process 85% of HH opportunities in a complex care setting. To process these opportunities, the system configuration should include monitoring of patient room entrances, individual patient environments in multibed rooms, and shared ensuite bathrooms.

Key Words: Hand washing, infection control, monitoring system, hospital acquired infection

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 Supported by Health Technology Exchange (HTX), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (funding reference No. HTX 80047 and XHT 83447), Registered Nurses Foundation of Ontario, Andrew J Hart Enterprises Limited, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and the Ontario Centers of Excellence (project No. TO-CR-1007 4-08). Toronto Rehabilitation Institute receives funding under the Provincial Rehabilitation Research Program from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in Ontario.

 Conflicts of interest: None to report.

PII: S0196-6553(10)00442-6

doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2010.02.007

AJIC: American Journal of Infection Control
Volume 38, Issue 7 , Pages 518-522, September 2010

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