hand hygiene
hand hygiene
By Robert P . Lee
Hand Hygiene Compliance Monitoring Technology : Buy , Lease , Outsource , SaaS … What ’ s Right for You ?
Why are infection prevention and environmental services departments the last place where hospital administrators want to spend money ? Why must infection preventionists ( IPs ) utilize clipboards , spreadsheets , volunteers , poorly trained observers , and a manual methodology to monitor hand hygiene , the most effective method to prevent healthcare-associated infections ( HAIs ) and protect patients ?
This discussion is designed to help IPs evaluate the technological choices available to address hand hygiene monitoring as an alternative to the manual method . Important considerations include current challenges to more effectively address the requirements of hand hygiene compliance and your institution ’ s situation and objectives . Choices include purchase , lease , outsource or continue your current program . Here are some of the questions to consider :
1 . What is your institution trying to accomplish and what type of help / resources are necessary to meet your goals ?
2 . Is your approach to create your own system or purchase a proprietary system ?
3 . If your goal is to create your own system , how will you design , implement and maintain it ?
4 . If you decide to purchase a system , will you buy , lease , outsource , or other ( software as a service or SaaS )?
The Purchase Option
This is the most straightforward approach . Each system component has a cost and sell price , and , depending on the system , potentially a distribution cost . Each system will vary in price , depending on your footprint design . It is therefore critical to understand your hand hygiene compliance footprint , meaning what you want to measure and what you want to achieve . The hand hygiene compliance footprint is a designed workflow that is mapped as well as standardized to efficient workflow and hand hygiene protocols . ( The choice and design of an appropriate footprint will be considered in a future column .)
Once you have itemized the parts , you need to consider other costs :
● Service costs , including parts and maintenance , warranty and customer support
● Lost , damage and theft
● Technology upgrades
● Installation and de-installation
● Additional consulting
When you choose to purchase , you own the technology and it is considered a capital expense , usually considered and procured through the capital expense process ; this is usually a competitive process among different departments with the performance of a needs assessment .
Leasing Hand Hygiene Technology
Leasing is another consideration , which is essentially renting the technology for a period of time at a specific rate . Leasing can include a lease-to-buy scenario , where a portion of your lease payments are allocated to the purchase of the technology . Leasing helps to avoid the capital expense process , as leases are generally allocated to operating expense as an ongoing cost . Additionally , all the other costs noted above are operating expenses .
Leasing may be a practical choice to avoid competition for capital , lock in a fixed term of service , potentially accrue equity in the technology , and upgrade or change the technology in the future .
Outsourcing Hand Hygiene Technology
You may also consider a software as a service ( SaaS ) model . In this model you neither purchase nor lease the technology but choose a company to provide complete access to hand hygiene compliance services for a fee .
A SaaS model for hand hygiene technology provides all the benefits of leasing , as your firmware and software are updated automatically and seamlessly , and all the other service features of a lease agreement are included . With the current rapid development of new technology and needed software updates , SaaS agreements are the current standard . Whatever approach chosen when adding a technological approach to a hand hygiene program , a cloud-based platform is essential , as hand hygiene technology is so data intensive , it requires each individual sensor station to communicate efficiently , accurately and instantly .
In summary , depending on the size and resources of your institution , there are several business approaches to the acquisition of hand hygiene technology . A smaller hospital where the infection prevention department comprises a single person , technology enhances the ability to collect robust , performs 24 / 7 , is a force multiplier for IPs , and may make clinical and economic sense . In large integrated delivery networks ( IDNs ), technology allows IPs to target their influence and enhance teaching and education , rather than collecting and analyzing data that is more effectively and efficiently collected via that technology .
A final consideration is to engage a vendor in a risk / share / gain agreement . Such agreements can align your goals and metrics with the supplier and provider , a means to pay for your hand hygiene technology , as well as provide an ROI and expense reduction for your system .
Robert 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 .
22 may 2023 • www . healthcarehygienemagazine . com