An electronic video surveillance system helped a New York hospital’s intensive care unit increase its hand hygiene compliance rate from 6.5% three years ago to more than 80% today, according to a study published last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases, the New York Times reports.
Most hospitals report hand hygiene compliance of roughly 40%, according to the Times.
How the System Works
About four years ago, Manhasset, N.Y.-based North Shore University Hospital installed an electronic video surveillance system manufactured by Arrowsight to provide instant feedback on ICU practices.
Under the system, ceiling cameras are pointed toward sinks and hand sanitizer dispensers outside of patient rooms, while a door sensor tracks when someone enters or leaves the room. An Arrowsight employee monitors the video from a remote location and issues staff a pass or fail grade. Anyone entering a patient room must wash his or her hands within 10 seconds to pass.
Success rates then are emailed to the hospital’s nurse manager twice per shift, and an LED display across from each nurses’ station reports hand hygiene compliance.
Effects of the System
Although the study did not evaluate infection rates, Bruce Farber — the head of infectious diseases at North Shore — said methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections have dropped since the hospital implemented the electronic video surveillance system.
Isabel Law, the surgical ICU’s nurse manager, said that North Shore nurses now “have a picture to see how we’re doing” (Rosenberg, New York Times, 11/24).
