Automated real-time hand-washing compliance monitoring and alerting is now available with Infonaut’s Hospital Watch Live (HWL) solution.

Handwashing reduces hospital-acquired infections by decreasing the number of pathogens on the hands. It’s the most important, and least expensive, measure for preventing the transmission of hospital-acquired infections. However, studies show that handwashing compliance rarely exceeds 40%, even in intensive care units.

How It Works:

Hospital Watch Live uses real-time location tags on patients, staff and hospital assets to calculate the movement, contact and interactions across a hospital wing, floor or building. The HWL system is now able to also monitor the location and time spent by staff in relation to handwashing locations within patient care areas.

Automated policy alerts are generated each time staff come in contact with a patient, if they do not first come into contact with a handwashing station or sink. Over time, compliance rates are monitored and reported to hospital staff and managers.

“This real-time compliance management is made possible by combining our partner Sonitor’s ultra-accurate RTLS hardware with Hospital Watch Live’s sophisticated location-based surveillance system. This represents a significant advancement in our effort to deliver the most effective Hospital Infection Control solution available today.” Niall Wallace, Infonaut CEO

Handwashing compliance programs typically use nursing students or other non-uniformed observers to record handwashing practices throughout the working day. The advantage of the Infonaut approach is that real-time surveillance pushes automated policy alerts through Hospital Watch Live to Infection Control Practitioners (ICPs) or other stakeholders, in a live hospital environment.

Why It’s Important:

Only about one third of medical professionals knew that cleaning hands with soap and water was essential in preventing the spread of hospital-acquired infections, since alcohol sanitizers are often ineffective against hospital-acquired infections, like C. difficile.

HWL’s handwashing compliance module helps hospital staff ensure that the simple, effective precaution of handwashing receives the attention and compliance it deserves. While handwashing is highly effective, managing handwashing compliance can be time-consuming and labour-intensive. By integrating handwashing compliance management within the HWL solution, Infonaut is making it easier for hospitals to streamline their fight against hospital-acquired infections.

Neither have we. “Information overload” however, is a very familiar term. The clear implication is that there must be some major difference between information and knowledge – yet this crucial distinction is usually overlooked in the stampede to make use of sophisticated workplace technology. In fact, very few organizations can readily articulate the difference between information and knowledge in their work practices.

So what IS the difference, then? Well, imagine a learning process that starts with data – usually some large mass of numbers that measures or describes something. Such raw numbers aren’t particularly meaningful or useful on their own however, and so data typically gets converted into information by processing it; graphing, for instance, is one way to convert data into information that conveys meaning. Other ways to process data into information include calculating averages, trends, and so forth.

What is less obvious is that information can then be processed and converted into knowledge. This is done when information is absorbed and integrated with a person’s existing knowledge, and made actionable. But because this is actually much more difficult than processing data into information, and this is where organizations tend to get stuck – with the result that they produce more and more information from more and more data, while failing to produce more and more knowledge.

There are two main reasons why converting information to knowledge is difficult. First, the creation of knowledge from information relies heavily on a match between incoming information and what the person in question already knows. If there isn’t a good match – if the workplace information system isn’t tuned to the existing knowledge and needs of its user – then no knowledge is born, and information simply piles up. The second reason is that knowledge tends to reside in the heads of people rather than in databases or documents. When knowledge gets extracted from the head and written down, it is often degraded back into information for someone else to reconvert to knowledge. This is massively inefficient and frequently unnecessary.

So what is the solution? Well, some organizations are very adept at using information technology to speed up the conversion of information to knowledge by individuals. This can be accomplished with careful mapping of where and how information does and should move through an organization, together with a thorough analysis of the characteristics and needs of the knowledge workers involved.

Ironically, technology is often used to increase the amount of data and information thrust upon workers, creating the sort of information overload which actually impedes a person’s ability to create knowledge. Technology certainly can and should be used to do the exact opposite – facilitating knowledge instead of information overload. For example, a weather feed to an average person that provides wind speed and direction, air pressure, historical highs and extend several days into the future over a large region, is saying a great deal – but little that it is actionable.

However, a forecast that gives only a probability of precipitation and relative humidity within an explicit time frame and limited geography will actually enable the recipient to integrate that with her planned activities and make smart decisions about attire, schedule changes, and so forth – while transmitting only a fraction of the information of the first example.

Some organizations have also discovered how technology can be used to help skilled professionals exchange knowledge with each other without having to degrade knowledge to information first Various forms of social media can be effective for such groups, usually variations of the Q&A forum, where membership is not wide open and where members are all part of the same specialty, trade, or job occupation.

The healthcare arena is rife with skilled professionals, and is ideally suited to improving its ability to use social media to convert information to knowledge efficiently and to share knowledge effectively. These goals lie at the heart of the Infonaut approach to designing effective solutions for its clients.

Interested in learning more? Contact our Director of Knowledge Management, Colin Furness.