Mercy Community Hospital Reaches 10,000 Handwashes and Reduces HAIs with Resurgent Automated Handwashing System

Michelle Farber, RN, CIC, Mercy Hospital’s senior infection prevention officer, has notified Resurgent Health and Medical that they have surpassed the 10,000 handwashing milestone. As part of a new approach to prevent healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs), Mercy’s ICU installed the Resurgent Health and Medical handwashing system in December 2009.

With a staff of 78, the handwashing tracking clocked the 10,000 handwashes mark in May 2010, in a mere six months of operation. More significantly, there has been significant reduction in HAIs, and Mercy’s Clinical Action Team (CAT) has earned recognition from the Minnesota Hospital Association and the American Association of Critical Care Nurses.

Mercy Hospital is a 271-bed hospital that serves the northwestern Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. Mercy is part of Allina Hospitals & Clinics, a not-for-profit health care system of hospitals, clinics and other patient care services that provides care to communities throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

“To keep improving adherence to hand hygiene and contact precautions, Mercy’s latest efforts to prevent infection included placing automatic handwashing systems in the ICU,” said Farber. “Positive feedback created a culture that believed targeting zero infections was possible.” Resurgent is proud to have contributed to the reduction of HAIs at Mercy and plans to award certificates of recognition to all 78 staff members.

Resurgent Health & Medical manufactures and distributes CleanTech® automated handwashing systems and CleanTracker™ RFID Compliance Monitoring Software. CleanTech performs a fully-automated wash, sanitize and rinse cycle, eliminating up to 99.98 percent of pathogens, while using 75 percent less water and soap than manual handwashing. Upgraded with CleanTracker RFID compliance monitoring, the CleanTech System automatically tracks and records handwashing for report generation.