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 […]
A Perfect Stormy Virus Season
Norovirus, H3N2 Flu, Colds, Enterovirus 68 and Ebola … Norovirus rates are picking up in a variety of environments as the winter deepens, but this year, it shares the stage with H3N2 flu, Ebola and Enterovirus 68. These four, along with the common cold, are spread everywhere folks gather, calling for added away-from-home hand and […]
Handwash Methodology
Situations drive operator choices “Over here, Ray debones raw chicken. Later in the shift, he works at the counter.” Handwash protocols in foodservice are dictated by the situation. Situations are defined and grouped by the operator and training begins. This sequence hardly ever happens. Why? It credits the operator with caring, knowing the risks of […]
Boil-Water Advisory
Should it close restaurants and all foodservice? Mercer Island Washington announced a boil-water advisory and closed foodservice establishments. How do you close a nursing home? Are you going to close schools and hospitals? Why close restaurants and then advise households that: Dishwashers can be used if run with the sanitizing/heat cycle and commercial dishwashing detergent. […]
Outbreaks are Paved With Good Intentions
Our current work on electronic handwashing compliance in restaurants clearly documents the industry’s poor hand hygiene reality. It is encouraging to watch how monitoring and keeping score changes the game. It is the foundation for motivating behavior change and raising the bar for handwash frequency and food safety. New behaviors are formed but it takes […]
Rub In but Rub Out the 70% Alcohol Myths
Hand sanitizers are often selected by label kill-claims and alcohol level. Those numbers conceal compelling, decision-making scientific facts, verified by some of our leading universities. First, there is the common misstatement claiming that alcohol hand sanitizers are ineffective on norovirus, one of the leading causes of outbreaks and deaths in nursing homes. A properly formulated […]
Foodservice for the At-Risk
Placing Barriers in the Pathogen Pathways Three meals per day for the most vulnerable demands knowledge, process and caregiver commitment. In acute care, vulnerabilities are obvious as they are in long-term care, with the population dominated by the over 65 age group. Norovirus is a potent enemy of those already at risk due to their […]
Handwashing: Let’s Start Talking Risk
Monitoring for the near misses Restaurants, particularly multi-unit operators, could reduce their corporate risk of an outbreak by increasing their ability to simply talk more about the #1 risk, poor handwashing. This Circles of Success assessment is an instrument to make that happen, to merge the science of Quality Assurance with the priorities of Operations […]
Handwashing: The Behavior Change Reality
Intention is miles from a good habit Our current work on electronic handwash monitoring is accentuating the path of caregiver learning from awareness on to forming new unconscious behaviors. Too often, training is seen as the singular factor in changing handwash behaviors. We train, stop and expect results. There are 7 steps and we stop […]
