The incidence of healthcare-associated infections has increased significantly after years of steady declines, according to a CDC analysis1 published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
Researchers attributed the increase to the COVID-19-related challenges of staffing shortages and high patient caseloads, limiting hospitals’ ability to follow standard infection control practices.
The Leapfrog Group sets targets for hospital and surgery center performance. Leapfrog’s hand hygiene standard requires at least 200 observations per month of hand hygiene.
But staffing shortages and staff fatigue mean most hospitals don’t perform enough observations to capture an accurate picture of their hand hygiene compliance. And when hospitals start properly tracking hand hygiene, they generally find their rate isn’t even close to what they thought it was.
Proper hand hygiene is essential, yet harried professionals are skipping this step. Staffers have so many other things to do – and so little time to do it – that there’s no time for conducting observations.
Compounding the issue further are concerns around what technology upgrades are needed and the associated cost to upgrade each facility’s infrastructure. These concerns often stop a facility from exploring options before they even begin.
Mirador’s simple yet effective technology helps solve the complex problem of reducing hospital acquired infections with innovative hand sanitizing solutions that drive healthier outcomes for hospitals, healthcare providers, and patients.
Innovative Mirador Guardian TM dispensers record all dispensing events by location, time, and person. Dispensers can be placed in patient rooms, high traffic public, and staff areas.
The Mirador system doesn’t require expensive technology or IT infrastructure upgrade. The Mirador system pairs logistical intelligence and Bluetooth technology with hand sanitization liquid dispensers and caregiver ID badges.
Mirador enables healthcare delivery organizations to monitor, track, and report in real-time hand sanitization events and data that benefits both patients and the bottom line—with no changes in protocols or usual operating procedures.
In-person observations can be replaced with customizable, user-friendly dashboards that gather real-time data on hand hygiene workflow behaviors, calculate compliance, log missed opportunities, and strategically pinpoint where corrective action is required at an individual, team, department, or healthcare system level. Equipment monitoring, such as liquid levels, battery levels, and proper operation, is also reported. Information can be made anonymous.
Healthcare organizations implementing the Mirador system can experience an estimated 20% reduction in HAIs. And with the average cost of an HAI to a healthcare system to be approximately $15,275, these organizations would see an ROI of 8-to-1 in the first year of Mirador’s operation.
Mirador was founded to help solve the complex problem of reducing hospital-acquired infections with innovative hand sanitizing solutions that drive healthier outcomes for today’s hospitals and healthcare providers.
The staffing shortage, particularly in skilled nursing staff, is predicted to grow to 195,000 vacancies by 2030. Healthcare organizations can help lessen the burden on overworked staff by implementing a hand hygiene protocol that uses cutting-edge technology in a simplified system that enables tracking without face-to-face observation.
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1 Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, September 2021.
