Improving hand hygiene culture

The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, a major acute teaching hospital, provides a full range of acute medical and surgical services and has the busiest Accident and Emergency (A&E) department in Scotland. Hand hygiene is the single most important factor in helping to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HCAI).¹ In order to reduce and prevent unnecessary harm to patients, hand hygiene compliance is monitored across Scotland’s Health Boards at least monthly in all clinical settings. At the end of 2013 there was an increased incidence of HCAIs. NHS Lothian’s Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh decided to use SureWash (www.surewash.com) to re-engage and motivate staff in hand hygiene. To implement the technology successfully, it was first evaluated in a number of settings before a more structured campaign was developed.

The technology used

SureWash is a cart-based system that can be easily positioned in clinical areas making hand hygiene training accessible to staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week. SureWash uses a camera and advanced gesture recognition from the computer games industry to measure a user’s skill in hand hygiene technique. Users get real-time feedback on their technique allowing them to train independently. Furthermore, multiplechoice quizzes are set to target specific areas of knowledge for improvement.