Back
Usually, when technology is mentioned alongside healthcare, everyone assumes the topic is electronic medical records. Mention cloud computing systems and maybe the result is a tiny bit different. Listeners will probably assume you're going to talk about HIPAA-compliant electronic medical records.
But Microsoft's cloud computing service Azure and hand sanitizer maker Gojo have teamed up to use high-tech healthcare number crunching in an interesting way. If early reports hold true, the data produced might also save patients' lives.
Who's scrubbing up?
As locum tenens doctors, you get to see a lot of different hospitals. Obviously, sanitation and hand washing is a priority in all hospitals, but let's be honest – compliance varies.
According to the CDC Foundation, poor healthcare hygiene practices result in approximately 1.7 million infections and nearly 100,000 deaths each year.
It's difficult for clipboard-wielding human auditors to acquire a reasonable accounting of who's washing and who's not, even when they're skulking around corners and hiding behind doors. So Microsoft and Gojo put cloud technology to use, upping the sample size to get the real story on hospital sanitation practices.
Apparently…not so much
The high-tech duo teamed with Fort Worth, Texas-based John Peter Smith Hospital to track hand sanitation opportunities versus sanitation events.
Motion-tracking sensors were installed in rooms with sanitation stations to monitor traffic through the area. Additional sensors tracked the volume of soap and sanitizer inside dispensers. The data allowed Microsoft's cloud-based Azure system to crunch numbers on 90,000 sanitation opportunities.
The results were surprisingly poor.
Initial figures showed that just over 16 percent of healthcare workers properly sanitized themselves when they had an opportunity to do so. After the hospital staff was made aware of the study, sanitation events climbed to nearly 32 percent, before settling back down to 26 percent.
Overall, awareness of low compliance numbers created a net improvement in hand hygiene, so there is hope that automated monitoring and reporting might eventually save lives. Who knows if software systems and in-house sensors will be widely adopted to incentivize universal compliance on sanitation initiatives.
Regardless, the John Peter Smith Hospital study is a fine reminder – wherever your assignment takes you – that you should be washing thoroughly and often. And proper hand-washing practices are a fine way for traveling locum tenens doctors to display some professional leadership when out on assignment.