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New technology could replace the traditional pencil and paper method |
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Infection control New technology could replace the traditional pencil and paper method iPhone app attempts to streamline hand hygiene tracking After reading this article, you will be able to:
If you have an iPhone® or an iPod touch®,you’ve probably already downloaded a number of applications that make everyday tasks—such as opening the trunk of your car or turning off your lights—as simple as touching a screen. But for those of you with an iPhonein the medical setting, a newly released app will streamline hand hygiene compliance tracking. The appropriately named “iScrub” app, developed at the University of Iowa (UI), aims to replace the traditional method of pencil and paper tracking, providing more accurate data and a less time-consuming collection process. The iScrub app was released May 5 in collaboration with the Centers on Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and coinciding with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “5 Moments for Hand Hygiene” campaign. “The long-term goal of our research is to understand hand hygiene behavior and use the feedback to help improve rates. This app can help standardize and streamline how observations are recorded,” Philip Polgreen, MD, one of the application’s developers and an assistant professor of internal medicine at the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, said in a press release. The CDC Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings recommends that medical facilities periodically monitor hand hygiene adherence among staff members. Additionally, one of The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG.07.01.01) specifically requires medical facilities to comply with guidelines from the CDC and the WHO. Therefore, most facilities are already collecting hand hygiene compliance data, but this new app could translate to less time collecting data and more time actually improving compliance rates. How it works The idea originated when medical professors at the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine teamed with developers in the Computational Epidemiology group in the UI Department of Computer Science. Chris Hlady, a doctoral student in computer science, built the first version of iScrub (iScrub Lite) and has gained traction with the product as two more doctoral students, Donald Curtis and Jason Fries, have expanded the platform to iScrub Pro, currently in pilot deployment. “I think hospitals have been tracking this compliance for a while,” Curtis says. “I think it was the idea that we have been given this device and we have a way for replacing clipboards and pencils and transcription, so why not do it?” The plus side is that medical facilities won’t need to purchase hundreds of mobile devices to effectively use the app. “The idea is you have a couple of these devices in the hospital and they are used to track the hand hygiene,” Curtis says. “It’s designed so you don’t have to buy one for everyone.” Staff members assigned to track hand hygiene can input data according to the WHO’s “5 Moments for Hand Hygiene”:
Observers can also separate data into job titles of their choosing to track compliance among specific subsets of staff members such as nurses, physicians, or physical therapists. Additionally, there is room to indicate whether a patient was on contact, droplet, or airborne precautions and whether the healthcare worker used gloves, a mask, and a gown. Data and observations are then sent to an e-mail address and can be transferred onto a spreadsheet for documentation. “I think everybody that has used it is really excited, not just about what’s been done, but about the future of using devices like this,” Curtis says. “I guess the most positive feedback is how quickly using a device like this allows the data to get fed back into the system.” A streamlined approach In addition to making the cumbersome process of hand hygiene data collection more efficient, the iScrub app also allows a streamlined approach to hand hygiene compliance. Although most hospitals constantly track compliance, the methods used to monitor adherence can vary significantly from facility to facility. The iScrub app ensures that each hospital uses the same measures and definitions. Grants from the CDC and the National Institutes of Health went toward the development of this project, which gave developers access to a standardized process. “One aspect we are trying to take with iScrub is how do we help standardize hand hygiene monitoring,” says Curtis. “We’ve worked closely with the CDC and the WHO to design iScrub to encapsulate everything that hospitals need to record when they are doing hand hygiene observations.” The next steps Currently, iScrub Lite 1.5 is available to download for free at the iTunes® App Store, but the team and UI are already working on the upgraded iScrub Pro model. The Pro model allows users to send data to a website rather than an e-mail address. The website puts the information in a database and generates charts based on the data. “It’s kind of a next step,” Curtis says. “Here we have the whole input device, which is iScrub Lite, and then there is what do you do with that data. That’s part of what we are working on in the Pro version.” Currently, iScrub Pro is undergoing a pilot study on units at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Interested facilities can also apply to be a part of the pilot program at the iScrub website. “I guess the next step for us is to start expanding from there,” Curtis says. “It’s about evolving the product and getting people to use it and getting feedback.” Source Briefings on Infection Control, July 2010, HCPro, Inc.
Two versions of the iScrub app Currently, there are two versions of iScrub, but only one is available to the public; the other is still undergoing pilot testing. iScrub Lite 1.5
iScrub™ Pro
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