The SaniTwice® Protocol is a Special Friend of Bedridden Patients First developed for the military, this two-step, cleanse-sanitize, protocol has found many applications in water-scarce situations beyond the deserts of the Middle East where it was first deployed. The latest “desert” is the bed of the bedridden patient – at home, in hospitals, rehab centers, and nursing […]
Visualization & Personalization Drive Handwashing Improvements
Germ theory comes to life by visualization and personalization of the poorly washed hand. A visual feedback explains why hands must be washed at least 10 seconds and preferably 15 or 20, depending on the contamination and the physical condition of the people under their care. This is the advantage in using the ProGrade Scorecard […]
Patient Safety Awareness Week Pearl!
Authored by Dr. Will Sawyer – Founder, Henry the Hand Foundation 1 in 4 seniors have superbugs on their hands after a hospital stay I thought it appropriate to share the impact of poor hand hygiene resulting in HAIs, in hospitals. And a brief inclusion of other non-HAI Hand Hygiene issues in every community; Norovirus, […]
Handwashing: Data to the Rescue
Electronic monitoring of handwashing reveals the risky reality. Suspected low handwashing rates are increasingly being confirmed with the aid of electronics. Potential brand-damaging outbreaks threaten restaurants and healthcare foodservice but this recurring under-washed condition is rarely the topic of C-Suite discussions. Foodservice and Healthcare share a concern about handwashing and both consistently look to in-service training to […]
Data-Driven Brand Protection From Norovirus
Workshop to raise handwashing to Patient-Safe standard Healthcare handwashing mirrors the data-short Restaurant issue. Handwashing For Life’s research stretches from the watershed event of the early 1990s, the Jack-In-The-Box outbreak, to today’s Chipotle issues. The most consistent shortcoming in those 23 years, including these bookend events, is the lack of data for operators to invest […]
Hospitals: 99,000 & Long-Term Care: 380,000
This headline is the CDC estimate of deaths caused by Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAI). They are rarely added. The math is easy, 479,000. The solution apparently is not.When 100 people acquire a norovirus infection it makes front page news yet 479,000 annual HAI deaths goes by unnoticed. Here is another way to look at the […]
Kick the Sanitizer Bucket
Misunderstanding of regulations perpetuates poor cleaning Many operators and even regulators continue to use and recommend cleaning restaurant tables and other high-touch surfaces with a reusable rag stored in a bucket of sanitizing solution. This solution is easily degraded and difficult to maintain. It is also a poor cleaner allowing contamination buildups capable of harboring […]
The New Legal Look at Handwashing
“quality controls … to safeguard consumer and employee health.” 2016 is starting out as a potential watershed for hospital, nursing home, and foodservice handwashing. Two high profile Norovirus outbreaks at Chipotle restaurants in 2015 were followed by two legal actions and a 35% drop in Chipotle’s stock price. Controlling Norovirus is highly dependent on good […]
The 5 Handwashing Hurdles
Sixteen years of formal and informal research has provided the Handwashing For Life Institute with a long list of reasons and excuses for low handwashing rates. Today caregivers may hear of their compliance rate being reported at 90% but in their heart of hearts know it is far short of the reported number. Now with […]
Advancing Compliance Monitoring
Stepping Down the Risk by Stepping Up the Technology Culture change is the only way Handwashing For Life Healthcare has found to convert time-hardened handwashing behaviors. Years of accepting low compliance now defines today’s reality. Whatcha got is … who you are! Years of training have produced waves of temporary peaks in performance. Training without […]
