Personal hand hygiene dispensers can help solve one of healthcare’s biggest challenges

Challenges help create the condition for the dramatic evolution of business and clinical best practices. An advancing economic crisis, CMS phasing out payment for healthcare acquired infections, mandatory reporting, MRSA, and the nursing shortages are formidable challenges, which together create conditions for the holy grail of patient safety to be found at last. The time has come for hand hygiene to evolve into an advanced clinical skill, emerge as the nucleus of a new patient safety culture, and provide fiscal relief in trying economic times.

No other single patient safety issue has more at stake for an institution in fiscal savings and improved patient outcomes than clinical hand hygiene yet improvements have been elusive. Healthcare acquired infections (HAIs) can be cut in half given impeccable hand hygiene. The release of the 2002 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hand hygiene guidelines initiated introduction of wall mount alcohol gel dispensers and motivational posters in every hospital across the country. Using observers and inventory records to measure, some hospitals boast compliance rates as high as over 90%. However, infection rate improvements have not been realized as the stakes grow higher with emergence of MRSA and other antibiotic resistant organisms.

The fact is, until now, providers have not had true point-of-care access to alcohol sanitizers and therefore were not able to respond to hand hygiene indications which were logistically improbable. The CDC recommendation for point-of-care access to hand hygiene agents has been translated into wall mount dispensers situated near the patient room entrance. Infection preventionists and clinicians, by practical necessity, have translated the indications for hand hygiene recommended by the CDC guidelines into little more than coming and going from patient rooms. The act of coming or going from a patient room in itself is not a recommended indication for hand hygiene, as defined by the CDC guidelines. It is, however, an excellent practice, being well aligned with actual indications and serving as a prompt for hand sanitation which is a good start. Conversely, the immediate patient environment; touching an IV pole, monitor, bedrail, chair, privacy curtain, etc... is a recommended hand hygiene indication yet is noticeably absent in both message and practice. The CDC guidelines point to studies showing hand-transmitted infection rates are highest during the busiest times.1 When patient-care duties are most demanding, how can a doctor or nurse respond as expected to every hand hygiene opportunity in the patient environment when the wall-mount dispenser or sink is many steps away?

The solution to the persistent logistical barriers is at hand. A new device has been tested at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center which lights a path to a bright new future for hand hygiene and a powerful way for hospital leadership to meet the challenges offered by these remarkable times. The Sprixx personal dispensers offer ultimate accessibility to alcohol hand rub at the point-of-care.

The new study abstract by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) of Lebanon, NH presented at the Society of Critical Care Medicine's annual Critical Care Congress in Nashville, TN reveals the promise of this new approach to healthcare hand hygiene and hospital infection rate reductions. Tracking before-and-after infection rates in a 26-bed intensive care unit (ICU), researchers found introducing the use of Sprixx personal sanitizer dispensers with tracking electronics by the nursing staff, significant improvements in hand hygiene adherence corresponded to reductions in healthcare acquired infections (HAIs). The study documented improvements in both ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and catheter related blood stream infections (CRBSI). "Ventilator pneumonias were significantly reduced after introduction of the novel device [61% reduction, p=0.001, 95% CI (1.91-9.01)]." The Sprixx body-worn hand sanitizer devices resulted in a, "trend towards reduction in catheter-related bloodstream infections by 50%."2

We're not talking about a trivial change for clinicians. First, we are asking clinicians to go from the national average of below 50% compliance to near-perfect. Opportunities within the patient environment can be responded to given a new second-nature sanitizer tool. Developing the second-nature response to every indication for hand hygiene requires a professional commitment as it is an advanced clinical skill.

With the average cost of a VAP at $40,000 and a CRBSI at $45,000, and CMS phasing out payments for infections, hospitals must embrace new technologies and safety culture. The Sprixx personal dispensers provide true point-of-care access technology and can act as the symbol of advanced patient safety culture at your facility. To learn more about Sprixx personal dispensers and how you can capitalize on the opportunity to overwhelm one of today's biggest healthcare's challenges, call 866-477-7499 or visit www.sprixx.com.

References:
1. Boyce JM and Pittet D. Guideline for hand hygiene in health-care settings. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Oct. 25 2002, Vol. 51, No. RR-16. Page 6.
2. Randy W. Loftus, Stephen D. Surgenor, Andreas Taenzer, Donna Houston, Cindy Robinson, Matthew Koff, Reduced Nosocomial Infections Associated with a Novel Point- Of-Care hand Hygiene Device, SCCM CCC 2009 Abstract, Feb.2009