Hand Washing Secret Shoppers Patrol the Hospital To Help Prevent Never Never Events

This hospital has individuals watching and checking, as well as installing hand sanitation stations at about every 10 feet in the facility on patient floors, so everyone here is being watched. The reason for this of course to to help prevent the never-never events and help stop the spread of MRSA.

In addition, the hospital audits how many gloves, how much hand sanitizer is used, etc. so we have a bit of business intelligence reporting involved in the process too.

Last week I posed about a technology solution for the matter that is being utilized and evaluated at a hospital in Florida. This will be interesting to see if the new technology from HyGreen can help aid in the situation. In just looking at the human auditor involvement here with time, and the expense of installing hand sanitation stations throughout patient areas, every 10 feet, this involves a bit of an investment too, so again perhaps with the technology solution it could turn out to be a favorable return on investment.

Real Time Monitoring of When you Washed your Hands – Don’t Touch that Patient Until You Have Washed Your Hands

Again, cost versus manually secret shoppers will more than likely be the key here, as well as evaluating the over all success and functionality of the product. If it proves to be effective, perhaps we might start seeing technology adding into the battle of the never-never events and the fight against MRSA. BD

Jeanette Smyth has spies watching to make sure doctors, nurses and therapists at Ogden Regional Medical Center wash their hands.

At the low point, half weren't practicing good hygiene. Today, the shirkers are down to about 10 percent, according to the hospital's infection control and prevention specialist.

And that has translated into fewer cases of the health-care-acquired infection known as MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, too. Smyth's secret auditors "walk up and down the hall and pretend they're doing other things with the clipboard. If you're watched, your compliance goes up," she said. "If the compliance is down, they hear about it. This is a never event: We never want them not to wash their hands."