Use of a verbal electronic audio reminder with a patient hand hygiene bundle to increase independent patient hand hygiene practices of older adults in an acute care setting

Publication date: Available online 1 March 2018
Source:American Journal of Infection Control
Author(s): Shanina C. Knighton, Mary Dolansky, Curtis Donskey, Camille Warner, Herleen Rai, Patricia A. Higgins
BackgroundWe hypothesized that the addition of a novel verbal electronic audio reminder to an educational patient hand hygiene bundle would increase performance of self-managed patient hand hygiene.MethodsWe conducted a 2-group comparative effectiveness study randomly assigning participants to patient hand hygiene bundle 1 (n = 41), which included a video, a handout, and a personalized verbal electronic audio reminder (EAR) that prompted hand cleansing at 3 meal times, or patient hand hygiene bundle 2 (n = 34), which included the identical video and handout, but not the EAR. The primary outcome was alcohol-based hand sanitizer use based on weighing bottles of hand sanitizer.ResultsParticipants that received the EAR averaged significantly more use of hand sanitizer product over the 3 days of the study (mean ± SD, 29.97 ± 17.13 g) than participants with no EAR (mean ± SD, 10.88 ± 9.27 g; t73 = 5.822; P ≤ .001).ConclusionsThe addition of a novel verbal EAR to a patient hand hygiene bundle resulted in a significant increase in patient hand hygiene performance. Our results suggest that simple audio technology can be used to improve patient self-management of hand hygiene. Future research is needed to determine if the technology can be used to promote other healthy behaviors, reduce infections, and improve patient-centered care without increasing the workload of health care workers.

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