News: Edward-Elmhurst Adopts SwipeSense Platform
Jan. 10, 2020, PRNewswire — To further advance its mission and dedication to delivering a world-class patient experience, Edward-Elmhurst Health, a three-hospital system serving the west and southwest suburbs of Chicago, has selected SwipeSense as its technology partner to prevent hospital-acquired infections, efficiently track valuable hospital equipment and mitigate preventable harm, such as patient falls, by ensuring consistent care delivery. 
SwipeSense is an affordable, Real-Time Location System (RTLS) platform that powers applications, such as Hand Hygiene monitoring, Asset Tracking and Nursing Insights, designed to eliminate waste and improve patient outcomes in healthcare delivery networks. In a sample of four hospitals, SwipeSense helped reduce hospital-acquired infections by an average of 55% within the first year of implementing the technology.
“The safety of our patients and our staff is of the utmost importance. As we continue our journey toward safety and high reliability, preventing hospital-acquired infections is a major focus. Proper hand washing is one of the easiest yet most effective evidence-based practices we can use to prevent infections,” said Mary Lou Mastro, System CEO, Edward-Elmhurst Health. “SwipeSense will help us increase hand hygiene compliance, aid in the fight against hospital-acquired infections and improve our overall patient experience.”
How SwipeSense Hand Hygiene works
Edward-Elmhurst Health began using the SwipeSense Hand Hygiene system in late 2019. Nearly 4,000 employees at Edward and Elmhurst Hospitals who are involved in direct patient care in patient rooms, emergency department and procedure areas wear caregiver badges that wirelessly communicate with the SwipeSense system to automatically record hand hygiene events (cleaning hands with sanitizer or soap) and opportunities (entering/exiting patient rooms), without disrupting staff workflow.
When a caregiver cleans his/her hands, a hygiene sensor located below a soap or sanitizer dispenser recognizes the employee’s unique badge identification and a green light flashes to indicate the data was transmitted. SwipeSense captures information when users enter/exit a patient room and when they clean their hands, only recording hygiene opportunities and events associated with patient room visits. The data is fed to the SwipeSense platform where managers can view hand hygiene compliance data at the facility, department, unit, room, and employee levels via an online dashboard.
Edward-Elmhurst identified significant alignment of their key executive initiatives with several elements of the SwipeSense platform, and as such, is the first health system in the Chicago area to implement the full platform. Through the power of innovative RTLS technology, all applications are powered by a combination of the same hardware, including SwipeSense Caregiver Badges, Asset Tags and Sensors. Intuitive user dashboards will enable hospital staff to capture reliable data, allowing them to effectively optimize resources and reduce care variation.