hand hygiene
hand hygiene
By Robert P . Lee
Facility Health and Hand Hygiene : Economic and Operational Status
Facility health is a collective term introduced here to describe the state of quality and safety , both operationally and financially , for a healthcare site that addresses the continuum of care from an integrated delivery network ( IDN ), acute-care , non-acute care , clinics , offices , nursing homes , etc .
Why is facility health an important consideration as a consumer / patient and / or as a service provider ? Would you fly an airplane , travel into space or even drive a car without the proper indicators and data ? As a consumer , would you choose to place your family ’ s health in the hands of a provider that does not have this information ? Or is the information available but not shared ?
Facility health is based on the principle that certain key processes , protocols and activities that are clinically and evidenced-based should be performed simultaneously and delivered without exception . Their purpose is to reduce the overall bioburden of potential pathogens within a facility . Hand hygiene compliance is critical to the maintenance of the lowest bioburden possible and the prevention of the movement / migration of potential pathogens . Key components of facility health are environmental management initiatives to ensure :
● Patient rooms are cleaned / sanitized daily
● Medical equipment and devices are properly cleaned and processed between use
● Hand hygiene compliance is monitored for healthcare personnel , support staff , visitors
● All non-patient spaces are sanitized , including nursing stations , break rooms , supply storage , etc .
● Incorporation of a high-touch cleaning as part of nursing turnover process
Internally , these are easy boxes to check . However , more importantly , how do you measure performance and assess if your processes are enhancing quality and safety ? Typically , the key performance indicators ( KPIs ) are not widely shared in an organization and are usually an “ eyes only ” event , meaning that only certain individuals might see or have access , such as risk management , human resources , legal , and key administrators .
There is some assessable public / published data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ( CMS ) and The Leapfrog Group that can provide some information regarding your facility ’ s performance . This can be put into dashboard format and serially updated .
These example dashboards provide a snapshot of infection reported to CMS ( 12 months in arrears ) and the Leapfrog Group scores for these hospitals .
This IDN will spend $ 83 million over five years servicing infections , based only on data reported to CMS . What is this facility ’ s health ?
Robert P . Lee , BA , the CEO and founder of MD- Medical Data Quality & Safety Advisors , LLC , is the senior biologist and performance improvement consultant . MD-MDQSA is the home of The IPEX - The Infection Prevention Exchange , a digital collaboration between selected evidence-based solutions that use big data , technology , and AI to reduce risk of HAIs . He may be reached at : medicaldatamanagement @ gmail . com
26 • www . healthcarehygienemagazine . com • june 2024