At Clean Hands – Safe Hands, improving the patient experience is front of mind in everything we do. We have talked about patient experience many times, but in case you missed it, here is a free resource outlining three ways to improve patient experience in your hospital.
Improving patient experience is vitally important. Patient experience not only affects a hospital’s reputation, it also affects a hospital’s bottom line. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, for example, asks discharged patients about varying aspects of their hospital stay. The government provides reimbursement based on results of the survey, so it’s very important that patient experience is a top priority (read more about HCAHPS here). Here are a few ways that an IoT (internet of things) system like Clean Hands – Safe Hands helps keep patients satisfied.
The Leapfrog Group is a not-for-profit organization founded with the intention of bringing vital healthcare information to patients. The Leapfrog Group advocates for public access to data from all U.S. hospitals. Leapfrog’s website has a search function labeled “How Safe is Your Hospital” where anyone can search a hospital by name and discover a variety of quality and safety metrics.
Obviously, it’s very important for hospitals to score well on the Leapfrog survey in order to attract consumers who are seeking quality care. Scoring well on the Leapfrog survey proves to consumers that the hospital takes their care and satisfaction seriously.
Recently, Leapfrog has seriously upped the ante on hand hygiene. The survey contains 19 questions directly related to hand hygiene, and if a hospital chooses to use direct observation, it is nearly impossible to satisfy the requirements for hand hygiene (more on that here).
If a facility chooses to implement an electronic hand hygiene system, meeting Leapfrog’s standards becomes a lot easier and much cheaper. With the Clean Hands – Safe Hands system, the monitoring assessment is passed with flying colors.
Here is a free resource that breaks down the questions on the survey and exactly how the Clean Hands – Safe Hands system checks the boxes. While the Leapfrog survey is not directly connected to inpatient satisfaction, performing well on the Leapfrog survey creates trust between the facility and the patient before they are ever admitted.
Many people are afraid to go to the hospital because of the risk that they will catch something while in the hospital (and rightfully so). HAIs (healthcare-associated infections) are the fourth leading cause of death, and on any given day, 1 in 25 patients is battling an infection that they got while in hospital care.
It’s widely acknowledged and accepted that HAIs are very preventable. Yet, so many hospitals still struggle with keeping their patients healthy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists handwashing as one of the most important ways to prevent the spread of HAIs (including COVID-19). Proper sanitation protects both the patient and the provider. Unfortunately, when providers get busy (like when an outbreak occurs), hand hygiene tends to fall to the wayside. Also, providers often choose to wear gloves as an inappropriate alternative to proper hand hygiene.
Clean Hands – Safe Hands customers are leveraging the predictive analytics capabilities of Real Time Intervention Blueprints™ (below) to help identify risky situations before they lead to a spread of infections. These analytics tools analyze the data in real time and identify concerning patterns of provider behavior.
In the Real Time Intervention Blueprint™ below, each symbol represents a room. The larger the symbol, the more patient visits. The shade of the symbol represents hand hygiene performance. Green indicates high performance and red is low. A room with a large, red symbol is cause for concern and represents a pattern that is at high risk for spreading infection. Clean Hands – Safe Hands has automated algorithms that analyze the hand hygiene rates, number of patient interactions, and the risk of the organism in real-time and sends an alert to the hospital leadership as the concerning pattern develops. The hospital leadership can then go intervene and address the issue before the infection has a chance to spread to other patients.
Keeping patients as healthy as possible while in hospital care is a no-brainer for keeping patients satisfied. Helping patients recover quickly and safely so they can get back home is incredibly important. Clean Hands – Safe Hands’ predictive analytics keep patients safe and happy.
Often times, a patient is admitted to the hospital, and loved ones worry about the care they are receiving. A Clean Hands – Safe Hands hospital recently had an elderly patient whose son was very concerned that she was not being visited regularly. The facility was able to pull a report for the room that showed who visited his mother and how often. This put his mind at ease.
Because of COVID-19, many hospitals are not allowing visitors. It is important for the patient’s family members to have insight into the care the patient is receiving. The Clean Hands – Safe Hands system records all patient visits which the hospital can share with family members if needed.
Below is real data from one of our hospital customers, showing visits to a patient’s room during one day shift. Nurses, Respiratory Therapists and other clinicians are badged with the Clean Hands – Safe Hands badge reel, which holds their credentials. Non-clinician visitors (family, friends, etc.) are unbadged.
Many hospitals have a policy that requires patients to be checked on every hour. In the graphic above, while Nurse Susan did check on the patient several times throughout her shift, she did not check on the patient every hour. This is an opportunity for unit leadership to intervene and ensure that the patient is receiving proper care. This keeps the patient and their loved ones satisfied.
Scoring well on the Leapfrog hand hygiene survey, preventing the spread of infections, and keeping an eye on patient visits are just a few ways that utilizing an IoT (internet of things) system can improve the relationship between the patient and facility. To learn more about how Clean Hands – Safe Hands can help your facility stay on top of patient satisfaction, contact us.
