The proven way to reduce the human and financial cost of HIAs by up to 50%
Our ELITE mobile unit is a compact, turnkey system that can be easily transferred from ward to ward to offer training and follow-up for all health care staff.
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Weighing just 10Kgs the GO device is fully portable and comes with its own military grade storm case for ease of transport.
Learn MoreNumerous clinical studies that have taken place worldwide emphatically underline the key role hand hygiene plays in infection control and its financial impact on Hospitals. Research indicates that up to 50% of HIA’s are caused by poor hand hygiene.
SureWash has delivered increases in hand hygiene compliance rates by as much as 50%
By gamifying the learning technique, SureWash develops psychomotor skills and have delivered increases in hand hygiene compliance rates by as much as 50% when incorporated into a multimodal approach. Ultimately this not only saves organisations time, money and productivity but has a very real impact in improving patient outcomes.
Supports 4 of the 5 components of the WHO hand-hygiene strategy (the 5th being alcohol based hand rub at every point of care).
SureWash’s measurement of each stage of hand hygiene reduces the potential of misinterpretation of correct technique.
SureWash’s real-time monitoring can identify staff members’ level of compliance and participation on an ongoing basis.
Use our simple calculator to estimate the cost of poor hand hygiene in your organisation and see how SureWash can drive fundamental improvement.
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Use our simple calculator to estimate the cost of poor hand hygiene in your organisation and see how SureWash can drive fundamental improvement.
Reduces the incidence of HCAIs
Develops muscle memory for life
Improved Compliance
Real time Reporting & Monitoring
Audit compliant records for Quality Certification
Self training & Assessment
Reduces the financial cost of HCAIs
Reduced labour costs
Portability for ease of access to training across multiple wards and locations
Continuous training
Message Customisation
Patented World-leading Gesture Technology
The technology behind SureWash incorporates an RFID badge reader and record management system. This means it can identity staff members level of compliance and participation on an ongoing basis. The system incorporates varying degrees of reporting and real time monitoring. For example, it can highlight the degree of competency staff are demonstrating x technique type, both on a universal – hospital wide or ward level – or individual basis. Comparative data is also available, for example between teams of staff, different wards and so on. The Software is available in multiple languages and can be updated as necessary with customised/varying messages. This keeps staff members engaged and they can be updated on new messages the hospital management wants to deliver to them.
Because the SureWash terminals can be linked to our Online Monitoring system, hand hygiene training records are automatically saved for submission to quality certification bodies.
Usage data can also be used in an Action Research or community of practice improvement methodology to have groups of staff set and attain improvement goals. Goals and an associated leaderboard can be used to drive local contest and challenges which motivate engagement with training.
All SureWash systems connect to the SureWash.net platform. Users can amalgamate records and reports across multiple machines, design and build their own multimedia content and questionnaires for deployment, generate schedules and program plans, access user guides and FAQ’s, update their machines with the latest software and content modules, access marketing collateral and issue certification documents to encourage engagement with the target audience.
While all of the data is stored securely within the units themselves, signing up to our Cloud solution means you have immediate access at all times to records updated in real time.
Infection control is a shared concern and SureWash Elite can be used to engage patients and family members in a conversation about hand hygiene and infection control issues. Patients find the training and engagement a positive experience. An associated range of signage can be used to engage users in independent learning kiosks.
Traditionally, most hospitals and infection control officers manage their hand hygiene programs through a mixture of sporadic video presentations or training courses.
The SureWash system is a combination of an e-learning system, gamification and patented gesture recognition technology that is physically present in the hospital 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The gesture recognition technology evaluates the users hand washing technique in a structured series of washing methodologies and ensures that hand hygiene is performed according to the WHO effective Hand Hygiene technique.
Through continuous, day-to-day training, users very quickly progress to the highest standards of hand hygiene management through muscle memory learning. Clinical trials conducted in real world scenarios concluded that the use of Gaming technology not only improved technique, but also had a positive impact on compliance with overall hand hygiene as measured by monthly audits of ‘5 moments’ using WHO recommended audit tool.
The live video image is shown to users on a large screen and the image overlaid with real time feedback on their progress (augmented reality). In addition to measuring the motions of the hands in accordance with the WHO protocol they can optionally measure the size of the hands and if staff are “bare to the elbow”
Answers to the most frequently asked questions about our products and service.
Hand hygiene training is time consuming to deliver, hard to standardize and it can be difficult to generate staff enthusiasm to attend a class. SureWash is a mobile system that brings training to the staff no matter where they are in the hospital. SureWash uses gesture recognition technology to automate the training, allowing staff, patients and visitors to train independently at any time of the day or night.
SureWash is the only technology scientifically validated to train on the WHO hand hygiene protocol (HUG paper, RCSI paper). As part of a multi-modal campaign it has been show to improve the bacterial load on hands and the “5 moments” compliance (Mater paper). The WHO hand hygiene protocol has been shown to more than twice as effective at killing germs as normal unstructured hand hygiene (GCU paper).
SureWash uses cutting edge games technology and innovative learning approaches to deliver scientifically validated learning outcomes in hand hygiene. The incremental difficulty levels and the “Practice-Rest-Repeat” learning approach used in SureWash delivers optimal learning and retention of good hand hygiene skill.
The traditional “glow box” approach uses gel coverage as a proxy for effectiveness but scientific results show it is actually a poor proxy for microbiological effectiveness (GCU paper). The glow box learning approach is not suited to training a psychomotor skill .
SureWash aims to be a best in class hand hygiene training simulator and is guided by the latest scientific literature. We know that hand hygiene is important for removing germs but if done poorly parts of the hands are missed and the pathogens survive e.g.
SureWash uses advanced sensors and typical game elements such as real-time feedback, formative and summative scoring, incremental difficulty levels and micro-learning quizzes harnesses people’s competitive streak. This structure builds a good-natured competitive atmosphere in hand hygiene and infection control.
SureWash provides specialized training that explicitly empowers patients and visitors to train in infection prevention alongside staff. Kids in particular love to use SureWash. Empowering patients and visitors with knowledge of Infection Prevention allows them to be active participants in their care and play their part in reducing the risk of HAIs in hospitals and reduces the risk of infections when they get home.
To support the integration of the SureWash system we provide one day of on-site consulting to train staff on design and implementation of their Hand Hygiene and infection control risk management program and launch SureWash to the hospital site. For three years post sales SureWash provides remote system support via the Internet. SureWash will provide new learning features each year via annual updates of the software.
SureWash is highly customisable to the individual needs of the IPC team or the administration itself. Firstly the micro-learning quizzes can be written by the IPC team using an online tool at www.surewash.net. The quiz is designed online and then loaded onto the SureWash units via WIFI or using a special USB key. Results from these custom quizzes are included in the standard SureWash reports. SureWash has a number of ways in which administrators can customise the protocol. The system can optionally enforce “bare to the elbow” by detecting sleeves and large watches. The system can also add an additional step of wrist cleaning which is standard practice in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. The graphics displayed on the system “home screen” can be customised to acknowledge sponsors, etc and to drive engagement via leader-boards and goal targets. SureWash can be further customised to deliver the core learning content in multiple languages. In addition to English, language packs are available in French, Spanish and German. New languages can be developed on request.
To support SureWash PIE program we provide one day of on-site consulting to train staff in using SureWash to train staff, design and implementation program and launch SureWash in a hospital site. For three years post sales SureWash provides remote system support via the Internet. SureWash will provide new learning features each year via annual updates of the software.
Staff have a number of ways to log into SureWash. SureWash can use a hospital’s RFID identity cards to allow staff to log in. Staff can the touch screen keyboard to type a user name (e.g. their email address or staff ID number). Fingerprint readers are an option if there is no staff ID system in place.
SureWash provides comprehensive reports on who has trained, their pass rates, the poses proving difficult, the time of day training has occurred etc. Reports can optionally show a photograph of the hands to verify compliance with nail and jewelry guidelines. The reports can be used for internal reporting for Infection Prevention and Control or Quality Control purposes or to provide data to regulatory bodies such as Joint Commission, CQC, etc. These reports are available in Microsoft Excel format allowing them to be incorporated into other documents and the raw data is available for further analysis or research purposes. SureWash can provide a summary of the activity level of each system via email to a nominated contact in each hospital.
The main way that SureWash can be customised is that the micro-learning quizzes can be written by the IPC team using an online tool at www.surewash.net. The quiz is designed online and then loaded onto the SureWash units using a special USB key. Results from these custom quizzes are included in the standard SureWash reports. SureWash has a number of ways in which administrators can customise the protocol. The system can optionally enforce “bare to the elbow” by detecting sleeves and large watches. The system can also add an additional step of wrist cleaning which is standard practice in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. Some of the graphics displayed on the system “home screen” can be customised to acknowledge sponsors, etc. SureWash can be further customised to deliver the core learning content in multiple languages. In additional to English, language packs are available in French, Spanish and German. New languages can be developed on request.
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Facts and stats on the importance of hand hygiene in the medical sector.
The number of people dying worldwide from preventable Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) is comparable to a 747 aircraft full of passengers crashing every two days according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
World Health Organisation
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the USA estimates that 100,000 Americans die each year from infections acquired in hospitals and it estimates that in America alone treating such HAIs costs $45 billion a year.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
In the developed world, HAI affect 5% to 11% of hospital in-patients. A typical 250-bed hospital will accommodate approximately 21,000 in-patients per year and can expect to have between 1,050 and 2,310 infections per year.
World Health Organisation
The direct medical cost of treating each infection ranges between €3,700 and €5,000, so the resulting annual cost to a 250-bed hospital is between €4m and €11m a year. This cost does not include the lost revenue due to cancelled operations and reduced bed capacity.
World Health Organisation
The WHO estimate that 50% of these infections could be prevented through better hand-hygiene, therefore a model hospital could both improve patient outcomes and save between €2m and €5.5m every year by implementing an effective hand-hygiene programme.
World Health Organisation
There is now overwhelming scientific evidence that HAI infections are transmitted by the hands of healthcare workers and that approximately 50% of these infections are preventable through better hand-hygiene (WHO 2009) (JCI 2010).
Pittet 2006
A WHO analysis has shown that there is, on average, 38% compliance with hand-hygiene guidelines and that staff overestimate their own knowledge and competence.
World Health Organisation
In a recent study at an NHS hospital, SureWash technology led to a doubling of the number of hand-hygiene events per patient day and improved compliance with the recommended WHO six-pose hand-hygiene technique by more than seven times.
Ghosh 2011