As health system leaders evaluate budgets for 2020, there is a tremendous focus on investing in data-driven technologies that offer innovation and long-term value for important measures, including safety and quality. 
At the same time, the rapid drive toward consumerism in healthcare has increased the need for hospitals to differentiate themselves through publicly reported recognitions, such as safety grades, patient experience scores, and other quality ratings.
Elevating Patient Safety with Electronic Hand Hygiene Monitoring
St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital is an accredited general acute care facility in Effingham, Illinois. Part of Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS), St. Anthony’s is consistently recognized for performance excellence and patient safety.
Like many hospitals, St. Anthony’s previously relied on direct, manual observation data to monitor hand hygiene compliance amongst physicians and other hospital staff. Once considered the gold standard for compliance monitoring, manual observation is increasingly scrutinized as an outdated and biased way to report accurate hand hygiene behavior. Also like many hospitals, St. Anthony’s reported compliance at or above 90%, but were acutely aware of the limitations of self-reported data, including The Hawthorne Effect, also known as the Observer Effect.
When Lori Winter, took on the role of Infection Preventionist at St. Anthony’s in 2016, improving hand hygiene was her first priority. To standardize hand hygiene performance and reduce the potential for hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), she proposed electronic hand hygiene monitoring. After evaluating several surveillance options on the market, Ms. Winter identified SwipeSense as the most communicative, trustworthy partner and innovative technology solution.
A Positive Public Relations and Marketing Opportunity
St. Anthony’s serves a rural, tight-knit community. As part of their plan to launch SwipeSense, they also saw the partnership as an important opportunity to involve and educate the community on the specific actions they were taking to demonstrate commitment to patient safety. They announced the initiative in a press release, through local TV and newspaper outlets, and across social media channels, helping to differentiate themselves from other hospitals and health systems in the market.
St. Anthony’s was one of the first hospitals in the state of Illinois to adopt electronic hygiene improvement tools. As a result of the positive results delivered in less than a year at St. Anthony’s, HSHS is expanding their partnership with SwipeSense, implementing Hand Hygiene monitoring system-wide at the 14 other hospitals across Illinois and Wisconsin.
Learn more about how our Hand Hygiene, Asset Tracking, and Nursing Insights applications can support your organization’s safety and quality goals.