Continued From Page 37
Summary Table
Cost to Meet the 200 Observations Per Unit per Month Calculator
Teaching Hospital
Community Hospital
# Medical Units 19 10 # ICUs 6 1
Hourly Cost with Benefits $ 42 $ 42
Cost Medical Units / Year $ 94,856.57 $ 153,454.16 Cost ICUs / Year $ 23,057.60 $ 4,845.67 Subtotal / Year $ 117,914.17 $ 158,299.83
Estimated factor for ED , outpatient and other patient care areas + 15 %
$ 17,687.13 $ 23,744.97
Grand Total / Year $ 135,601.30 $ 182,044.81
Knowing the real cost of deploying professional , properly trained staff to meet the standard will help you accurately compare these costs to other options such as e-monitoring to assess which will provide the most robust , accurate , timely and actionable data for your organization .
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Step 3 : Divide that into 200 ( the target direct observations per unit per month ) to get the number of hours needed for 200 observations per unit per month = 7.9 .
Step 4 : Multiply that by 12 to get the total number of hours per year needed to achieve the standard for just the observations alone = 95.1 ; then multiply this by a + factor you think is reasonable for the administrative time to plug the calculations into a spread sheet , create reports , review and distribute them etc ., we will use 25 percent for administrative and non-observational time required = 118.9 hours needed per medical unit per year to achieve the Leapfrog standard .
Step 5 : Multiply this number of hours per year by the total number of medical units ( 19 ) by the rate per hour ($ 42 ) = $ 94,856.57 per year for the total cost of 200 direct observations per unit per month .
Step 6 : Repeat these steps for the ICUs , and you find that the total cost per year to meet the standard = $ 23,057.60 .
Step 7 : Total these two amounts and add a plus up factor of 15 % for outpatient areas , other patient care areas and EDs and you get a grand total of $ 135,601.30 per year .
The Community Hospital
Applying the same seven steps using the HHOs for the community hospital you will find that the total cost is $ 182,044.81 ( due to fewer number of opportunities per hour , it takes much more time to capture the requisite number of observations thus the higher cost ).
Knowing the real cost of deploying professional , properly trained staff to meet the standard will help you accurately compare these costs to other options such as e-monitoring to assess which will provide the most robust , accurate , timely and actionable data for your organization .
Disclosure : Medline is a 2021 member of the Leapfrog Partners Advisory Committee and has a collaborative relationship with a company that offers electronic hand hygiene monitoring services .
Let me know what you think and please send me your specific hand hygiene challenges , frustrations and nagging problems – I ’ ll share ideas that might be of interest in this monthly column
paul @ nextlevelstrategies . com . Connect with me on LinkedIn . Also , please write to me for any help in creating your own calculator in Excel .
Paul Alper , BA , led the launch of PURELL ®, invented the first electronic hand hygiene monitoring system proven to reduce infections while improving behavior and eliminating costs and is now the vice president of patient safety innovation for Medline Industries , Inc . through an exclusive engagement with his consulting practice , Next Level Strategies , LLC .
References :
1 . Leapfrog Group . ( 2020 , April 13 ). Leapfrog Hospital Survey . Retrieved from https :// www . leapfroggroup . org / sites / default / files / Files / 2020HospitalSurvey _ 20200413 _ 8.1 % 20 % 28version % 20 1 % 29 . pdf
2 . Steed C , Kelly JW , Blackhurst DW , Boeker S , Diller T , Alper P . Hospital hand hygiene opportunities : where and when ( HOW2 )? The HOW2 benchmark study . ( 2011 ) Am J Infect Control ; 39:19-26 .