DebMed Launches New Online Toolkit to Improve Patient Quality and Safety

DebMed®, creator of the world's first and only electronic hand hygiene compliance monitoring system based on the World Health Organization's (WHO's) Five Moments for Hand Hygiene, announces a new web-based toolkit to help hospital clients improve patient safety by reducing infections through an increased focus on hand hygiene compliance.  DebMed is the first hand hygiene company in the world to provide actionable information along with its hand hygiene products to help drive best practices and improved outcomes for patients worldwide.

"The DebMed toolkit reflects our belief that to truly improve patient safety, healthcare organizations need to create a culture of safety," says Heather McLarney, vice president of marketing for DebMed. "This gives facilities the tools they need to communicate the importance of proper hand hygiene and collaborate as a team to drive accountability and behavior change."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 100,000 people die annually in the U.S. alone from healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), making it one of the leading causes of death behind cardiovascular disease and cancer.  Proper hand hygiene is the No. 1 way to prevent HAIs, yet the typical rate of healthcare workers' hand hygiene compliance is estimated to be only 40 percentto 50 percent.  Research shows that improving compliance requires leadership, collaboration, accessibility of hand hygiene products, feedback on compliance and infection rates as well as individual accountability. 

The DebMed GMS (Group Monitoring System) electronically monitors healthcare workers' hand hygiene events and provides feedback on compliance rates in real-time.  The supporting web-based toolkit provides training materials designed to help staff facilitate dialogue regarding the data collected from the monitoring system in efforts to improve hand hygiene compliance.

While most healthcare workers know the importance of proper hand hygiene, they benefit from being reminded regularly. In addition, both patients and visitors need to be informed of their responsibility and role in preventing HAIs, which is to ask and remind healthcare workers about hand hygiene compliance. The DebMed toolkit includes posters, screen savers and other materials to remind healthcare workers, patients and visitors to do the right thing when it comes to hand hygiene.