Hand Hygiene Surveillance Start-Ups Look To Clean Up Health Care-Acquired Infections
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
If health care workers washed their hands before and after any patient contact, health care-acquired infection rates could be reduced by 50%. There is a great need for electronic tools that can automatically capture compliance behavior without disrupting workflow. We profile four health care information technology start-ups that are answering this call: BioVigil Systems, GLANTA, HanGenix and Proventix.
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GLANTA Ltd.
Hospitals are mandated to train their staff on effective hand hygiene, but this often happens only once a year and does not include individual assessment. In addition, workers’ attention to proper technique tends to lapse over time, as they come into contact with many patients during long and busy shifts. Providing an interactive, easy-to-use solution for regular training, performance measurement and feedback on proper staff hand hygiene is the goal of Irish start-up GLANTA Ltd., with its newly launched mobile SureWash training and assessment unit.
BioVigil Systems LLC
The expense and complexity of some automated hand hygiene compliance and surveillance technologies have made cost justification and market adoption difficult. BioVigil Systems LLC is looking to eliminate these barriers with its simple to deploy chemical sensor and micro-processor on a personnel badge. The badge employs a metal oxide alcohol sensing device to detect when a health care worker has used an alcohol-based foam or gel hand hygiene product. The system is unique in that the room entry/exit technology, sensing, memory and communications capabilities are all self-contained within the badge. As such, the system moves with the worker, thereby not interrupting regular workflow.