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Getting Started with
SwipeSense Hand Hygiene

Welcome!

Thank you for playing an important role in the effort to prevent harm and eliminate infections through hand hygiene.

The most effective method to eliminate hospital acquired infections (HAIs) is frequent hand washing. We understand that you already clean your hands often; as the primary defense between HAIs and the patient, it’s critical to understand areas that are underperforming and ones that should be recognized.

SwipeSense Hand Hygiene is a measurement tool that helps hospitals quantify hand hygiene effectively over previous manual observation methods.

How it Works

SwipeSense Hand Hygiene is an innovative system that helps protect patients and caregivers from hospital-acquired infections. Using a network of smart sensors, SwipeSense provides reliable hand hygiene compliance data measured in monitored patient rooms only and nowhere else- not even in bathrooms or breakrooms. Your personal space is still your space.

Caregiver Badges

Badges wirelessly communicate with all other devices to record hand hygiene events (cleaning hands with sanitizer or soap) and opportunities (entering / exiting patient rooms). Only hand hygiene events and opportunities associated with patient room visits are reported.

Badges are uniquely assigned to specific individuals and are required in the hospital to receive credit. All you have to do is clip it behind your existing hospital ID. Once attached, your compliance will be measured moving forward.

To avoid damaging your badge, avoid high frequency hospital equipment (MRIs) and excess water.

Does wearing my badge have negative health impacts?SwipeSense badges emit less radio frequency waves than a wireless mouse or headset. It uses the same frequency as a typical home Wi-Fi setup, although on a much smaller scale. Multiple studies have concluded that wearing these devices does not increase the likeliness of negative health outcomes.

Hygiene Sensors

Hygiene Sensors are placed under soap and alcohol dispensers throughout the unit. ANY dispenser can be used upon entry/exit from a patient room.

When cleaning your hands, the Hygiene Sensor recognizes your badge and a green light will flash, indicating data was captured. Each time a dispenser is activated, the closest caregiver is credited for that hygiene event. You do not need to do anything different from your current workflow.

Location Hubs

Location Hubs help record entry and exit timestamps for visits to patient rooms.

These hubs are assigned to specific patient rooms or designated areas and should not be removed to ensure data is captured accurately. Location Hubs in non-patient areas (nurse stations, staff lounge, etc.) simply tell the system to not assess these areas for hand hygiene. Typically 1-2 are plugged inside a room.

Communication Hubs

Hand hygiene data is relayed from all devices in the system to Communication Hubs.

Typically located at the nurses’ station, with 1-2 per unit. Should remain plugged in at all times to ensure data is transmitted.

Dashboard + Compliance Reports

Your individual hand hygiene compliance contributes to your department’s overall compliance. This metric is reported in the Hand Hygiene dashboard as well as compliance reports. Bi-weekly reports of your compliance is sent to your manager while aggregate department and unit compliance are sent monthly to the Infection Prevention team.

Using SwipeSense

Watch the overview video below to see how to use SwipeSense in your facility. If the video does not load, please use this direct link.

How is compliance captured and measured?

Every time you enter and exit a patient room it is considered an opportunity for handwashing. SwipeSense measures whether you cleaned your hands before and after patient visits longer than 60 seconds. Shorter visits are not scored for compliance.

Getting Credit

Clean In / Clean Out

Always clean your hands immediately upon entering a patient room and upon exiting a patient room, even if a patient is not present.

Where to Clean Your Hands

You may use any soap or sanitizer dispenser to receive credit. You can clean before entering a patient room or once inside. The same rule applies for exiting.

When to Clean Your Hands

Clean your hands every time you enter and exit vacant OR occupied patient rooms and prior to putting on and after taking off gloves.

Tips for Success

Directors & Managers

  • Talk about the importance of Hand Hygiene at your next huddle.
  • Make sure badges are distributed and worn to ensure data is properly captured.
  • Watch & share the SwipeSense System Training video above.

Caregivers

  • Make sure to wear your badge at chest level.
  • Look for the green Hygiene Sensor light to confirm received credit.
  • Use any dispenser before or after visiting a patient room. Clean your hands within 60 seconds of crossing the door threshold.

Additional Resources

What’s Next?

Once your facility is live with SwipeSense, a baseline will be used to develop a path towards excellent hand hygiene. Given the complexities of your work, 100% is not a realistic target and SwipeSense recommends a long term goal where hand hygiene compliance is held at 80%.

If you have other comments or questions, reach out to our team below.

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