Evaluation: Vitalacy Individual-Level Hand Hygiene Compliance Monitoring System
January 21, 2022 | Evaluations & Guidance
Preview
- The Vitalacy system provides hand hygiene compliance rates at an individual, unit, group, or possibly facility level for clinicians who have worn system SmartBands or SmartBadges and used monitored dispensers within a care area during a specified time (e.g., hour, day, week, or month).
- Hand hygiene compliance rates are calculated as the number of hand hygiene events divided by the number of hand hygiene opportunities.
- Hand hygiene events are assessed by a user SmartBand or SmartBadge after use of manual or automatic hand soap or alcohol sanitizer dispensers with integrated sensors. User SmartBands detect when a user activates a monitored dispenser, records the duration of hand motion (i.e., the amount of time that they rub their hands together), and then transmits that information through the Vitalacy HHCMS network.
- Hand hygiene opportunities are assessed by sensors within a patient care area that are attached to the ceiling above a bed or crib. The Vitalacy system operates by creating a zone of short-range, radio-frequency (RF) radiation around a bed or crib to define a near-patient monitoring zone. Vitalacy SmartBands or SmartBadges are detected when they enter a patient zone and thus there is an opportunity for the user to perform hand hygiene.
- The Vitalacy system can be configured to monitor single-patient rooms or multipatient open bays.
- Major components and software features:
- User tags assigned to individual clinicians. Vitalacy offers two types of user tags: (1) SmartBand sensors that each have the following:
- Bluetooth antennas to communicate with Vitalacy charging docks, dispenser beacons, and location beacons
- Rechargeable batteries that we found will last approximately 21.2 ±2.6 hours when fully charged
- User tags assigned to individual clinicians. Vitalacy offers two types of user tags: (1) SmartBand sensors that each have the following: