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

“Customers have been asking for hands-free dispenser technology for years,” says Charles Kilfoyle of STERIS Corporation. “Although we haven’t seen clinical proof it’s going to help eliminate infections, we wanted to meet our customers’ needs. They believe it will help improve compliance because the dispensers are fun to use.”

In December, STERIS will launch a wall-mounted hands-free dispenser for its Cal Stat® Plus Antiseptic Handrub, as well as an add-on piece that can easily convert existing STERIS manual dispensers into touch-free dispenders.

Kilfoyle adds, “I’ve talked to ICPs who say when they’ve installed hands-free dispensers, their compliance goes up dramatically. I say, how do you know that, and they say their consumption goes up dramatically — they are measuring how much they spend each month on hand sanitizer product. We all know that compliance is low to begin with, so if these dispensers increase usage, they are going to increase compliance.”

Larson et al.¹³ suggest that in monitoring hand hygiene compliance, the volume of hand hygiene products can be used as an indicator of the number of hand hygiene episodes. They write, “Two baseline parameters would be needed to develop a performance monitoring system to assess appropriate hand hygiene practice: the number of indications for hand hygiene and the number of actual occurrences of hand hygiene. The volume of product used could be determined for known values of these two parameters and could be used as a comparative value.”

Preventing Cross-Contamination

As concerns about cross-contamination increased among infection prevention professionals, industry responded, introducing touchless sink fixtures and hardware as well as soap and paper towel dispensers. In fact, an entire generation has nearly grown up around this kind of touchless environment, making it the standard for restrooms everywhere, but most notably in healthcare facilities to decrease infections.