A pilot project OhioHealth rolled out with IBM has resulted in a 90 percent compliance with hand-washing standards. That’s a 20 percent jump for the hospital – and markedly better than most other hospitals around the country that are at 50 percent.
The project employs new IBM technology – what OhioHealth executives say is a first-of-a-kind network of wireless sensors and real-time big data analytics to give hospital administrators information that counts.
The data at OhioHealth has shown time and time again that staffers are on board with washing their hands. The data shows it, and visitors have observed it, says David Rutherford, RN, nurse manager at OhioHealth.
They mention it, saying something like, “People are always washing their hands here," he says.
That may be so today, but when the pilot first launched, some staffers questioned the data. But, they can no longer do that, Rutherford says, because they have seen for themselves that time and time again, the data has been right.
So compliance has risen and continues to rise, he said, with the goal set at 100 percent.
Rutherford knows and all of the staffers know that it will make a difference.
Hand washing is considered one of the best ways to avoid deadly infections, such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) and Clostridium difficile, which affect 1 in 20 patients in U.S. healthcare facilities. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 2 million U.S. patients contract healthcare associated infections, also known as HAIs, each year, and 90,000 die as a result.
HAIs are costly, too, estimated to cost the U.S. healthcare system $4.5 billion in related medical expenses every year.
[See also: HAI monitoring technology use is lacking.]
The newly installed IBM technology at one of OhioHealth’s Columbus hospitals provides the hospital staff with new information and observations that were not available before. Analyzing hand-washing data gives deep insights into the compliance levels of different departments, shifts, job roles, as well as variations based on other behavioral factors.
The real-time information is used to alert hospital personnel when proper hygiene habits are not being followed so that corrective action can be taken to reduce germ exposure to patients.
“OhioHealth is always looking for smarter ways to protect the health of our patients,” Michael Krouse, Sr. vice president and CIO, OhioHealth, said in press statement.
“Superbugs like MRSA can live for hours on surfaces, and we want to do everything we can to protect our patients from these kinds of serious infections, he said. “Working with IBM, we will gain additional insights that will help us consistently achieve total compliance with hand-washing standards and fight back against these bugs.”
The IBM customized technology is installed at all hand-washing stations at an OhioHealth hospital in Columbus. It measures the hand-washing compliance of hospital staff through radio frequency identification technology that is integrated with a mesh network of wireless sensors that collect data that is then analyzed by IBM’s system.
The system has improved the quality and accuracy of tracking data and delivers compliance information to hospital administrators 100 times faster than the hospital’s previous surveillance methods.
“Hospitals everywhere are grappling with ways to prevent infections, and we believe OhioHealth’s forward-thinking approach will raise the bar for the entire industry,” said Sergio Bermudez, an IBM research scientist. “Innovative organizations like OhioHealth are leveraging the power of technology to provide smarter care for their patients to improve quality while reducing cost.”
Bermudez told Healthcare IT News that one of the differentiators between the IBM system and others aimed at curbing HAIs, is that it is cloud-based.
The joint effort of OhioHealth, IBM Research and IBM Global Business Services represents a milestone in how healthcare facilities can more efficiently track their progress in hand hygiene promotion, plan for improvements and set new goals.
[See also: CDC studies infection control.]
How it works
The solution developed by IBM Research and OhioHealth combines two technologies to measure and analyze hand hygiene. Here’s the nitty-gritty of how it works.
Hand-washing sensors: Developed by IBM Research, low-power mote technologies with built-in RFID capabilities measure and control physical systems, such as hand-washing stations. The sensors are located at hand-washing stations in patient rooms and hallways, connected through a wireless mesh network. They capture time-stamped information on use of each hand washing station. They also detect when hospital staff enter or exit patient rooms and, thanks to their RFID technology, they are able to identify healthcare workers.
Data analytics: Measurement and management technologies were created by IBM researchers to collect, manage and process real-time data. The hand-washing data is streamed via cloud technology to the measurement system, where it is analyzed and stored to be used for on-demand reports, presentations and compliance studies. The analytics use the raw data streamed by the mote technology to determine whether or not hand washing took place. The on-demand data can be used to estimate compliance levels, trends and correlations for different departments, shifts and job roles.
As Rutherford puts it: “You can’t change what you don’t measure.”
