Hand Hygiene Compliance

Positive behaviour change through design.

  • Investigators

  • Co-investigators

      • A/Professor Mehmet Yuce
        • Monash Engineering (Electrical)
      • A/Professor David Taniar
        • Monash Information Technology (Data Science & IT)
      • Dr Andrew Stewardson
        • Monash Medicine (Infectious Diseases)

  • Partner organisation

    • Enware Australia
    • Monash Health
    • Oracle
    • CASF (Corian®)

  • Undertaken within

The global cost of hospital acquired infection (HAI) is between USD$35.7–45 billion (Scott, 2009), and the World Health Organisation estimates that there are 80,000 deaths per year attributable to HAI in the United States alone (WHO, 2017). In perspective, HAI accounts for 5–10 percent of admission complications in developed countries and increases between two and twenty times in developing regions (WHO, 2017). A lack of compliance with hand hygiene procedures – by staff, patients, and visitors – is a leading contributor to the problem of HAI. Numerous approaches have sought to address hand hygiene compliance, including; education and awareness, monitoring, product and system improvements, environmental initiatives, and infrastructure (Pantle, Fitzpatrick, McLaws & Hughes, 2009). Yet the problem shows no signs of abating (Pincock, Bernstein, Warthman & Holst, 2012), and the burdens of HAI persist.

This project seeks to challenge mindsets within the hospital and how they direct human behaviour. Key design directions seek to improve underlying behavioural resistance to hand hygiene including poor risk recognition, accountability, traceability, and prioritisation. In this project we are working together with hospital staff to co-design ways to enhance hand hygiene compliance through tracking and communication. This project is undertaken with a private-sector partner Enware – a manufacturer of taps and soap dispensers for healthcare environments and our hospital partner, a major Australian hospital.

Project News

‘Gamifying’ hand hygiene in hospitals may reduce hospital acquired infections

Monash University researchers have designed a system to improve hand hygiene culture in hospitals which aims to reduce hospital acquired infections (HAIs).

7 May 2019

The 'wicked problem' of hospital handwashing

It sounds like a simple task: how do you make sure that health care workers in hospitals wash their hands?

Project Images

Visualisation

We are creating a system of sensors that will monitor when hand hygiene has been achieved or missed at the required moments, for each staff member.

This image shows a visualisation of the mapping that could be created from the data collected from the sensors, allowing an additional medium to assess problem areas.

App

A mobile app will analyse this data with machine learning and predictive analytics to present personalised actionable insights and opportunities for improvement to the staff.

App

A mobile app will analyse this data with machine learning and predictive analytics to present personalised actionable insights and opportunities for improvement to the staff.

Smart wash-station

Currently being fabricated, the smart wash-station uses gamification through an interactive screen to engage the users in improving their handwashing technique, whilst providing functional design for efficiency, ease to clean, and splash minimisation.

Smart wash-station

Currently being fabricated, the smart wash-station uses gamification through an interactive screen to engage the users in improving their handwashing technique, whilst providing functional design for efficiency, ease to clean, and splash minimisation.