The Role of Technology in Combatting Healthcare-Associated Infections

Long before COVID-19 started spreading globally, healthcare organizations (HCOs) were battling the spread of common infections in hospitals. There are approximately 200,000 healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in Australian health facilities annually.

“HAIs remain a challenge for many healthcare organizations,” said Jonathan French, senior director, Thought Advisory, HIMSS. “It’s important for organizations to adopt different workflows that can reduce the spread of common pathogens and, in doing so, prevent infections.”

The many costs of HAIs

HAIs commonly lead to lengthened hospital stays as well as hospital readmissions. Consequently, HCOs face increased medical costs for those patients’ care. The resulting economic burden of HAIs is estimated to be more than $1 billion per year.

There are also indirect financial consequences to HAIs in the form of patient satisfaction scores and the organization’s reputation within the community.

“Having strong infection control practices, reducing HAIs and preventing readmissions are very standardized processes,” French said. “The evidence is quite clear: When these processes are adopted and followed, patient outcomes are better. Patients are more satisfied with their care. And they will want to come back to your organization for care in the future.”

Understanding the cleaning ecosystem

Successfully fighting pathogen spread and supporting the standardized processes that can help mitigate HAIs relies on a complex cleaning ecosystem.

Most infections are transmitted through the air or through surfaces. Organizations need to rely on caregivers, not just the cleaning staff, to help keep different medical and computer equipment clean. Unfortunately, many of the workflows to keep equipment clean add burden to clinicians already experiencing high levels of burnout.

“HCOs rely on caregivers to wash their hands, wipe down a cart and follow other protocols to manage spread. Unfortunately, this can take a lot of time,” according to Angela Poulson, senior product manager, Ergotron. “When you are in the middle of a busy shift, or you must immediately attend to a patient, there’s a high risk of adding the element of human error to these critical processes.”

Automation to help remove the element of human error

Engineered controls, automated processes and specific technology choices can help reduce the burden of extensive hygiene protocols on doctors, nurses and other clinical staff.

“Clinicians are going to be interrupted. They are going to be pulled in different directions as they provide care to patients,” French said. “When you can offer automated support to help them follow the workflows that support infection control, it benefits everyone. It saves lives. It reduces costs. And it helps to prevent more infections outright.”

Examples of engineering controls and automated processes include anti-microbial protection used on products to promote infection control. Functional elements like smooth handles and open architecture designs are also inherently easier to clean and maintain. Many organizations choose wall mount workstations to reduce cross contamination between patient rooms that may be more likely with mobile medical carts.

Engineering controls and systems can offer infection preventionists (IPs) vital data in real time to document the infection control efforts in use. Software can help provide IPs data to demonstrate how a technique helps reduce pathogens to keep caregivers, patients and their families safe. Collecting those data points in real time can help HCOs cultivate more robust infection control policies.

Adding automated pathogen reduction systems to your infection control ecosystem offers tremendous value by reducing the variability and bias seen in other human-led endeavors.

Ergotron’s open architecture workstation designs, anti-microbial treated surfaces and more support infection control initiatives and efficient workflows. Learn more at healthcare.ergotron.com.

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Enhance healing spaces and promote infection control

Ergotron’s CareFit™ family is designed to fit your people, workflows and environments. Fully enclosed technology and cabling enhances infection control to help protect patients and caregivers.

Learn more at www.ergotron.com/carefit.

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Image caption: iStockphoto.com/ipopba