Weekly Rounds: Digital Wristbands for Hand Hygiene Compliance, Innovative Gowns, and More

Here are 5 highlights from ICT^®’s wide-ranging coverage of the infection prevention and control world. Everything from interviews with known opinion leaders, to the news that infection preventionists and other health care professionals can use on their jobs.

Digital Wristband Provides a Fuller Picture of Hand Hygiene Compliance in an Intensive Care Unit

The wearable wristband works with location sensors throughout the hospital to track HH and HCW behavior, and then pairs with an app that analyzes individual performance.

Innovative Gowns Fill Wishlist of Sustainability, Style, Design

Collaboration of a team from Inova Health with La Forma Medical developed an isolation gown that was cooler, better fitting, and more environmentally-friendly than disposables.

IPC Practices Demonstrate Higher Hand Hygiene Rates in Skilled Nursing Facility

The encouraging method used in the facility to raise the percentages was the answer to creating a positive response from the team.

Barriers to Hand Hygiene Include Availability of Products, Lack of Feedback

Health care worker hand hygiene compliance ticked up during COVID, but levels remain low nationwide. A 3-hospital network in Illinois wanted to know why.

How Wound Classification Impacts Surgical Site Infection Rate

“Of all the SSIs we culled over that 3 years, about 42% of them required a wound class change by an infection preventionist,” Emily Grohs, MPH, CIC, tells ICT®.