Wireless Monitoring, Real-Time Feedback?
Feedback of hand hygiene rates is a key part of any hand hygiene campaign—unfortunately, such feedback is often delayed, and delivered at infrequent intervals. Feedback delivered in real time is most effective—the best example being a gentle reminder from a coworker at the bedside.
A couple weeks ago, my colleague Phil Polgreen presented, at the SHEA Annual Meeting, the results of a pilot study of a new wireless hand hygiene monitoring system he developed in collaboration with a team of computer scientists here. The potential for real-time wireless monitoring got me thinking about ways to provide real-time feedback as well. Such a system could be programmed to feed simple aggregate data wirelessly to a large wall display—say, just the rate of hand hygiene dispenser use upon room entry or exit. The display could be patterned after the traffic signs placed by public safety officers on stretches of road prone to speeding:
I’m sure there would be plenty of glitches, ways to game the system, etc., but I wonder if having this information “in your face” all the time, continuously updating, would have an impact?
A couple weeks ago, my colleague Phil Polgreen presented, at the SHEA Annual Meeting, the results of a pilot study of a new wireless hand hygiene monitoring system he developed in collaboration with a team of computer scientists here. The potential for real-time wireless monitoring got me thinking about ways to provide real-time feedback as well. Such a system could be programmed to feed simple aggregate data wirelessly to a large wall display—say, just the rate of hand hygiene dispenser use upon room entry or exit. The display could be patterned after the traffic signs placed by public safety officers on stretches of road prone to speeding:
I’m sure there would be plenty of glitches, ways to game the system, etc., but I wonder if having this information “in your face” all the time, continuously updating, would have an impact?
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