New technologies provide simple answers to age-old handwashing issues. The Pay: A performance-rewarding pay package is THE answer to solving the industry’s appalling handwashing compliance rates. New technologies provide measurement standards and serve as performance monitoring tools. Identify and implement a monthly incentive level worth working for. Here is a sample where an entry level […]
Designing Kitchens for Brand Protection
Reality beyond the Plan Review Consultants who design kitchens are increasingly searching for business-sustainable solutions that benefit their clients well beyond the Plan Review. This service is highly valued as costs to establish strong consumer brands are running high and taking years to establish. Outbreaks can kill a brand with a single incident. The evolution […]
Inadequate Handwashing Cited
Legal action underway Last summer’s Salmonella outbreak at Brent’s Deli in Westlake Village, California, sent 8 people to the hospital. The Ventura County Environmental Health Division conducted inspections at the restaurant, finding inadequate employee hand-washing along with other violations. Poor hand hygiene, poor handwashing, remains the #1 contributing factor cited in outbreak investigations. The risk […]
Don’t Let Perfection Be The Enemy Of Good: The Case for Frequency Over Thoroughness
The risk of a looming foodborne outbreak due to a missed hand wash or the cleaning of a high-touch surface will never be zero. That reality compromises many a food safety program as operators specify thorough cleaning with lofty label-claim products over frequent lighter duty cleaning of both hands and high-touch surfaces. For hand cleanliness, […]
Quality Assurance, Food Safety & Operations: Handwashing for Today and for 2020
An operator’s food safety risk is managed by a focused team of professionals with specific skills, objectives and measurements for success. Each works within a different time frame. The prep-line and wait staff are closest to the food and those served. Their skills and languages may differ but they share a primary objective – service. […]
Assessing the CDC HAI Death Rate
Budgets vs. Leadership Handwashing For Life Healthcare remains reeling as it looks closer at the CDC summaries of the annual fatalities caused by infections acquired in healthcare facilities. When answers are identified, there will likely be investment required. Early adopters of best practice solutions may reap benefits by strengthening their brand values. Leadership in healthcare […]
Deadly Math
Driving better hand hygiene Illinois, at about 4% of the US population, is expecting to close out the year with traffic deaths around a heartbreaking 975. Now, add the 99,000 acute care annual HAI fatalities with the 380,000 in long-term care, both CDC numbers, and multiply by 4%. That is 19,160 estimated HAI deaths in […]
Cleanliness Beyond the Senses
A light meter that changes caregiver behavior It is rare that a piece of equipment can have such an impact on human behavior. A sophisticated light meter from Hygiena reads surface cleanliness in seconds, providing the staff with a nearly instant acknowledgement of their professional level in surface cleaning. In healthcare, most of the high-touch […]
Kitchens and Provider Brand Values
Hand hygiene as a new differentiator St. Cloud, Minnesota, named appropriately after a 6th century French monk known for his healing (St. Clodoald), was the site of a meeting of nursing home culinary directors. We were armed for teaching but we learned even more. DOCS, Directors of Culinary Services, take their role very seriously in […]
New Handwash Compliance Monitoring Unveiled
Nursing home administrators react Nursing home administrators were introduced to new technology to take handwash monitoring well beyond the limitations of observation. It all happened as part of the INHAA agenda in Springfield, Illinois. Handwashing For Life demonstrated a system called SmartLink™ by GOJO Industries as part of their presentation on practices to lower nursing […]
