Miami Children's Hospital Installs HyGreen Hand Hygiene System

Miami Children's Hospital (MCH) announces today that it has installed Xhale Innovations' (XI) HyGreen® Hand Hygiene System in the MCH oncology unit. This will be the nation's first installation of HyGreen in a children's hospital and the first in South Florida.

To enhance patient safety, Miami Children's Hospital chose to integrate HyGreen within its oncology unit's infection control program with the potential to expand HyGreen into other areas of the hospital soon. The HyGreen system reminds healthcare workers to wash their hands. After cleaning their hands with alcohol-containing soaps and gels, healthcare workers place them under the HyGreen sensor that sends a wireless "all clean" message to a badge worn by the healthcare worker. A wireless monitor above the patient bed searches for the message. If it's absent, the badge vibrates, reminding the healthcare worker to wash. All interactions are recorded in a database in real-time.

"As a leader in patient safety, Miami Children's Hospital installed HyGreen to enhance efforts to protect patients from hospital-associated infections," states XI CEO Richard Allen. "This not only underscores MCH's dedication to quality patient care, but also its reputation as an early adopter when it comes to breakthrough technology."

The HyGreen system was designed to reflect the recommended hand hygiene guidelines from leading industry experts, including the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Joint Commission.

In other hand hygiene leadership, MCH won an award from the Florida Hospital Association in 2009 for its Squeaky Clean hand hygiene awareness project aimed at caregivers and patient families. In addition, Miami Children's Hospital is the first pediatric hospital to participate in the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare Hand Hygiene Project.

"Miami Children's Hospital honors the trust our families place in us. This heightens our commitment to provide the safest and most innovative, standardized service for the children in our care. As the first children's hospital to implement the HyGreen technology, MCH leads the way in the prevention of common hospital-associated infection," says Deise Granado-Villar, MD, MPH, chief medical officer and senior vice president of medical affairs.