Going Touchless is a High-Tech Solution to Hand Hygiene Compliance

Some believe automated systems can increase hand hygiene compliance because they make a tedious chore quicker and more fun, as well as thorough and more uniform than a manual “splash-and-dash” approach commonly used by harried HCWs. Resurgent Health and Medical’s Radius Automated Handwashing and Monitoring System is a fully automated, touchless system available in healthcare for mechanical handwashing, rinsing and sanitizing. It performs a 10-second cycle using a chlorhexidine gluconate-based sanitizing solution, delivered by high-pressure water jets that perform a consistent wash-and-sanitize cycle every time the machine is used.

“We’re committed to helping achieve ‘zero tolerance’ in the prevention of healthcare-acquired infections,” says Jim Glenn, CEO of Resurgent Health and Medical. “Our new Radius system brings to healthcare a proven technology that has enabled other critical industries to achieve near-perfect elimination of infectious workplace pathogens. Furthermore, the Radius system introduces a total prevention approach by automating measurement and documentation of handwashing compliance.”

The Role and Efficacy of Electronic Alerts and Prompts

Sometimes, an audible reminder serves as a friendly little push that most HCWs need to remind them to practice good hand hygiene. Amron Corporation’s Hand Hygiene Prompts (HHP) is a computer-based device that collects data from sensors which report room exit and entry, toilet use and hand hygiene compliance. From these data, HHP determines if a HCW should wash their hands, and plays a pre-recorded voice message over a loudspeaker to “Please wash your hands” if they do not. According to Amron’s Stephen Lane, PhD, the system is non-intrusive, as users are not identified by badges or tags; it is non-threatening, because users are not penalized for not washing; it is non-coercive, because the device reminds, not commands; and it is neither stigmatizing nor invasive, as users are not identified as having dirty hands, and no cameras or microphones invade their privacy. Amron’s work in handwashing behavior modification through verbal messages has been funded by the National Institutes of Health for a number of years, and successful clinical trials at Johns Hopkins University Hospital and Biloxi Specialty Hospital point to increased hand-hygiene compliance and decreased infections.