True to form, the Chicago NRA once again proved to not be a food safety or healthcare event. But it’s in my neighborhood and I always find something new and 2017 didn’t disappoint. 1. Topping my finds, was a new way to gather handwashing data, this time on the quality of the wash. The system […]
Handwashing’s Risk-Based Behavior Change
Facing the culture trap Handwashing behaviors are primarily driven by an assessment of risk. The Administration starts near the top of this pyramid, looking first to change the behaviors of caregivers via Nursing, Quality Assurance and Training. The C-Suite representatives are disengaged as there are no handwashing compliance reports to look at. They are content […]
International Clean Hands Week
Please join this annual campaign, sponsored by the CDC facilitated Clean Hands Coalition. Raise awareness of the dangers of poor hand hygiene. Check out a variety of ideas to improve the away-from-home wellness factor in everyone’s life. Clean hands are the cure to the spread of colds, the flu and those illnesses acquired in our […]
Assumicide
Risks rise as immune systems fall Too many healthcare risk managers are basing today’s risks on yesterday’s threats. Missed hand washes have new and costly consequences yet equipping caregivers with electronically assisted compliance systems is dangerously unhurried. Observational monitoring techniques are too expensive to reach statistical significance. Electronic Hand Hygiene Monitoring, EHHM, compliments direct observation […]
Handwashing: Culinary vs. Nursing
Winners have the data Handwashing in nursing home and hospital kitchens is often better in terms of compliance than that in Nursing areas. Surprised? Not surprised? How do we know? Data. It is not all good news for Culinary in that Nursing regularly reports a 90% handwashing compliance rate based on their admittedly flawed secret […]
Surface Cleaning Advances at ISSA 2016
Options grow for TouchReady® Surfaces The annual ISSA meeting continues to demonstrate its leadership in surface cleanliness advances. Some high-tech options this year were in the Generate-On-Site category, including the stabilized ozone from Tersano. Variations of electrolyzed water were represented. Tenant has harnessed the chemistry for floor machines and Geneon has optimized its engineered water […]
Ready for Norovirus
’Tis the season to be . . . washing your hands! Great Britain uses a colorful name to describe norovirus as it went technically unclassified for years but its effects were well known, particularly in nursing homes. The “winter vomiting disease” takes its toll every year in a pattern now confirmed in this CDC slide. Norovirus […]
Innovation In Nursing Home Handwashing
Funding Enhanced Handwashing The funding step for enhanced hand hygiene proposals fill the waste baskets and shredding machines of USA nursing homes. Everyone agrees on the need, no one pulls out the checkbook. Catriona O’Connor, the Proprietor and Director of Care for a nursing home in Ireland has an answer that deserves a look. She […]
Nursing Home’s Person-Centered Handwashing
Leveraging handwashing to establish a culture of caring Our search for a nursing home that had control of their handwashing took us to Ireland, Tralee to be more specific. We had heard about its years of success in complimenting their observational handwash monitoring with electronics. This non-denominational facility, Cúil Díden, was built in 2002 and […]
Handwashing: “Not Observed”
Health Department Inspectors Feed Operator Complacency Handwashing is respected by most all restaurants and caregivers to some degree, whether in the kitchens, patient areas or resident rooms. Lip service is at 100% while compliance is more likely around 25%-40%. Check out this report sent our way from a Canadian experience that we believe may be […]
