Miss Georgia Matterson1, Dr Katrina Browne1, Professor Phillip L Russo1,2,4, Dr Sonja Dawson1, Miss Hannah Kent1, Professor Brett G Mitchell1,2,3
1Avondale University, Cooranbong, Australia, 2Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, 3Central Coast Local Health District, Gosford, Australia, 4Cabrini Health, Malvern, Australia
Biography:
Georgia Matterson is a research assistant at Avondale University and an integral member of the Infection Prevention Research Group. Georgia has a Bachelor of Biotechnology (Honours I) from Newcastle University and received the 2022 College Medal. Georgia's has experience in working with randomised controlled trials and point prevalence surveys, with a particular focus on environmental hygiene, and hand hygiene.
Abstract:
Introduction
Hand hygiene is essential in reducing the spread of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Improving hand hygiene compliance is pivotal for patient outcomes. Innovative and new approaches to measure hand hygiene product usage may provide useful benefits to organisations and infection control professionals. Automated sensor technology offers a direct and real-time measure of hand hygiene product usage. This study tests the accuracy of an accelerometer sensor technology in monitoring the usage of hand hygiene product.
Methods
During this quasi-experimental study undergraduate nursing students simulated routine clinical practice and moments of hand hygiene. To capture hand hygiene moments, accelerometer sensors were placed on manually activated alcoholic-based hand rub (n=2) and soap (n=5) dispensers, and video cameras were placed around the room. Events seen on time stamped video recordings were compared to those registered by the accelerometer sensor technology (time stamped).
Results
This study evaluated 260 hand hygiene events and 5182 non-hand hygiene events, demonstrating 90% sensitivity, and 100% specificity. This model generated a positive predictive value of 100%, and a negative predictive value of 99.5%.
Conclusions
The automated system accurately measured whether a hand hygiene product was dispensed with a high degree of accuracy. Applying this technology in healthcare facilities could enable real-time monitoring of hand hygiene product usage, analysis of trends, planning of hand hygiene interventions and effective outbreak control. Real-time monitoring of hand hygiene compliance can address challenges in improving clinical hygiene standards.