HyGenius
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is estimated that there are over 1.4 million cases of health care associated infections (HAI) at any given time1. Research supports that microbes causing HAI are most frequently spread between patients on the hands of health-care workers1. Given this evidence, a great deal of infections can be avoided by maintaining the practice of proper hand disinfection. It is known that in a hospital setting, hand hygiene is one of the simplest, low cost and most effective daily actions that health care providers can adopt to prevent the spread of germs (i.e. bacteria and viruses). Furthermore, a proper hand hygiene practice can reduce additional cost for antibiotics and extended stay in hospital. The World Health Organization provides useful guidelines that explicitly identify critical time points requiring disinfection, particularly in the context of interactions between healthcare provider and their patients. Nevertheless, these recommendations are rarely met to their full extent due to influencing variables such workplace stress and time pressure.
With the overall goal of improving patient care by reducing preventable infections, the “HyGenius” system aims to (1) monitor hand hygiene in hospitals and (2) support health care providers in maintaining proper hygiene standards in their daily practice. The project involves a tracking system that will identify whether hand disinfection was properly performed at defined critical instances. Furthermore, reminder notifications will also be provided to help employees keep track of their personal hand hygiene.
It is imperative that the HyGenius system will not negatively impact the sterility of a hospital environment nor hinder the rapid pace and workflow of daily clinical practice. Therefore, the implementation of such a system will be sterile, unobtrusive, and non-interactive in design.
The objective is to improve the everyday practice of hand disinfection and, thus, achieve best hygienic conditions for staff members and patients at a hospital.
Team: René Groh, Daniel Zänker, Saruul Altanbagana, Verena Enzenhöfer, Daniel Ziegler, Daniel Höfer
Partner: Universitätsklinikum Erlangen
Scrum Master: Marlies Nitschke