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

Many infection prevention professionals believe that touchless technology is having an impact on the prevention of cross-contamination in the healthcare environment. “Touch-free technology is helping create a culture of healthcare workers that embrace hand hygiene,” says Beth Young, RN, BSN, CIC, an infection control consultant for GOJO Industries, with 30 years of experience in infection prevention. “As an infection control practitioner, I know and understand the importance of avoiding the possibilities of cross-contamination. For example, the simple act of turning off a water faucet can lead to hand contamination. That’s why we teach healthcare workers to use a paper towel to turn the handles.”

Young continues, “The development of touch-free dispensing technology for soap and hand sanitizer is a positive step toward reducing the possibility of hand contamination because your hands never touch the dispenser.” Young adds, “I know from personal experience that healthcare workers really like the touch-free technology. In feedback to me, they prefer touch-free dispensers because they feel this is a cleaner way to dispense soap and sanitizer.”

Choices abound in the marketplace. GOJO’s high-capacity, sanitary-sealed TFX™ Touch Free Dispensing System dispenses a variety of hand hygiene products, including Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer and Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer Foam, as well as Purell Surgical Scrub with Moisturizers and Provon Foam Handwash and Provon Medicated Foam Handwash. Clorox Commercial Solutions introduces its new Hand Sanitizer Touchless Dispenser for its premeasured dose delivery of the Clorox Hand Sanitizer, a bleach-free, 71 percent ethyl alcohol formulation. Ecolab’s Touch Free Dispenser dispenses its general-purpose soap Endure or Germa-Care cleansers, its professional Bacti-Stat handwashes, its Endure surgical scrubs, and its Endure waterless antimicrobial hand rinses.

Touchless dispensers are not limited to hand sanitizer, of course. Georgia-Pacific’s enMotion® Touchless Dispensing System offers towels automatically to users in a speedy and hygenic manner. Adjustable settings for sheet length, time delay, sensor range and dispensing mode controls usage and increases operational efficiency, while one-at-a-time towel dispensing reduces waste and lowers operating costs.

Kimberly-Clark Professional’s electronic bath tissue dispenser, the JRT Electronic Coreless, eliminates the need for users to touch the dispenser during use. The system automatically dispenses a pre-measured amount of toilet paper when users place their hands under the dispenser, thus combining the benefits of advanced touchless electronics with high-capacity coreless bathroom tissue for enhanced restroom hygiene, reduced consumption and compliance with the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) because of the system’s one-handed dispensing.

Kimberly-Clark Professional has also introduced an electronic touchless towel system that improves upon other existing Kimberly-Clark towel dispensing systems by offering the hygienic benefits of hands-free dispensing along with the highest capacity on the market and a range of other innovative features. The system is quieter than similar electronic touchless towel systems and more user-friendly, via a smart sensor on the bottom that allows people to place their hands in a more natural position to dispense the towels. It also features adjustable settings for sheet length and time delays, so the system can be fine-tuned to meet a facility’s particular needs.

The Challenges of Going Touchless

There are some challenges associated with both touchless and manual dispensers, including ensuring that dispensers are functioning, full, and well maintained.¹⁰ The CDC’s hand hygiene guideline cautions, “Dispensers may discourage use by healthcare workers when they become blocked or partially blocked and do not deliver the product when accessed by personnel, and do not deliver the product appropriately onto the hands. In one hospital where a viscous alcohol-based hand rinse was available, only 65 percent of functioning dispensers delivered product onto the caregivers’ hands with one press of the dispenser lever, and 9 percent of dispensers were totally occluded. In addition, the volume delivered was often suboptimal, and the product was sometimes squirted onto the wall instead of the caregiver’s hand.”²²

“STERIS didn’t jump on the touchless bandwagon immediately because we wanted to make sure the product was going to work,” Kilfoyle says. “We looked at the technology and weren’t comfortable until about two years ago that it was at the point where it won’t fail. Facilities need a product that is robust with a long battery life, as well as a dispenser that is fun, distinctive, and something people want to use.”