Hand-Washing Detectors Coming Soon
Have you ever been at a hospital and wondered if the doctor, nurse, etc.. washed their hands between seeing you and the patient before you? Thanks to a new technology, we may now have an answer to that question. A hand hygiene sensor, developed by the University of Florida, can detect if the health care professional entering a patients room has washed their hands.
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Nosocomial infections, also known as hospital-acquired infections, effect almost 2 million patients per year. That is about 1 in every 10 patients and accounts for up to 45 billion dollars in health care costs. Just to be clear, nosocomial infections have many factors and circumstances that account for their transmission. Some medical procedures, treatments, and diseases destroy the bodies immune system and thereby destroy protective barriers. However, research has shown that one of the main modes of nosocomial infection transmission is medical staff spreading infection as they move from patient to patient. Proper hand-washing by staff has been found to be the most effective way to stop the infection cycle.
The University of Florida’s HyGreen hand hygiene sensors are able to detect if the medical staff entering a patients room has followed hand-washing procedures before coming in contact with the patient. When entering the room, the staff will run their hands under a sensor that activates a green LED light on their ID badge if their hands are clean. The system also has a monitor by the patients bed that sends out infrared and acoustic signals to the staff ID badge that will verify that the green light is illuminated. If the green light isn’t illuminated (the staff hands are dirty) then the badge vibrates and alerts the staff to clean their hands. When the ID badge vibrates, an alert will also be sent to a database that hospital infection control staff can monitor. The HyGreen technology is expected to be installed at adopter hospitals by 2010.
It may sound like this technology is something that shouldn’t even be necessary. Hand-washing should be second nature to medical staff, right? However, reality is that hospital acquired infections kill over 80, 000 patients per year. If this technology can help boost hand-washing compliance, and thereby curb the modes of hospital acquired transmission, then I say it is well worth the monetary investment. In fact, I would love to see this type of technology in the food service industry as well.
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CHAN LEE PENG | Oct 27, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for informing. This will be a very useful device!
lindalulu | Oct 27, 2009 | Reply
Interesting article and what an invention.
Uma Shankari | Oct 27, 2009 | Reply
Very interesting. In these days of infections with newer strains of virus, any caution is well worth it.
Chris Stonecipher | Oct 27, 2009 | Reply
Jo,
This benefits of this device is tremendous compared to the amount of deaths by preventative illnesses. Thumbed and reviewed on Stumbleupon. Also Digg, Reddit and Buzzed.
Bless you,
Chris
Joe Dorish | Oct 27, 2009 | Reply
This sensor is going to save some lives, so bravo to University of Florida!
Ruby Hawk | Oct 27, 2009 | Reply
That devise will be the best thing that could happen. When Lionel was getting a test. I waited in his cubicle untill they brought him back. The sink was right in front of me and I didn’t see one nurse use it during the time I waited.
Jennifer Marre | Oct 28, 2009 | Reply
This will be a very useful invention. Perhaps eventually they will develop some kind of sensors to detect whether or not people in general wash their hands upon leaving the restrooms, and send some kind of signal for everyone in the restroom to hear if someone tries to leave without washing their hands. I think this would be a great way to prevent the spread of diseases so less people end up sick and in the hospital in the first place.
revivor | Oct 28, 2009 | Reply
very interesting invention
papaleng | Oct 29, 2009 | Reply
interesting info. Beep us if it does comes out in the market.