Deb Group Brings DebMed® Hand Hygiene Solutions to Canadian Hospitals

Healthcare division of the Deb Group targets reduction in healthcare associated infections (HAIs) with innovative electronic solutions and new skin care product line

CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 8, 2014 /CNW/ - DebMed®, creator of the award-winning, world's first electronic hand hygiene compliance monitoring system based on hand hygiene standards recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and acknowledged by The Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI), announces today its official launch into Canada. With significant success increasing compliance across the U.S., DebMed is bringing its proven and comprehensive hand hygiene solution to hospitals and healthcare facilities across Canada to help support healthcare organizations with their goal of raising the standard for hand hygiene compliance and improving patient safety.

"There is no doubt that DebMed has contributed to improved patient safety throughout the U.S. and we now look forward to partnering with healthcare facilities across Canada to lead the change with the most advanced solutions available for hand hygiene compliance," said Didier Bouton, president DebMed. "We look forward to working alongside clinicians to help improve hand hygiene with the use of the DebMed system, and in doing so, supporting overall patient care."

The Facts about Healthcare-associated Infections
According to Public Health Ontario, healthcare-associated infections were the 11th leading cause of death in Canada two decades ago, but are now the fourth leading cause of death for Canadians (behind cancer, heart disease and stroke). Additionally, about 220,000 people – or one out of every nine patients admitted to the hospital each year in Canada – acquire infections while being treated for something else, and 8,000 – 12,000 patients die from those infections, The Canadian Patient Safety Institute reports. Proper hand hygiene is proven to decrease the spread of infection.

The DebMed hand hygiene solutions include an electronic hand hygiene monitoring system, a full line of skin care products formulated specifically for the high-frequency hand cleaning healthcare environment, specialized point-of-care sanitizer dispensers, and an online toolkit of educational resources to provide a comprehensive hand hygiene program for hospitals. Currently, hand hygiene compliance in healthcare settings occurs less than 40 percent of the time, according to the WHO.

A Solution for Change
The DebMed GMS (Group Monitoring System) electronically tracks if healthcare workers are cleaning their hands as frequently as they should and provides feedback to staff to help improve hand hygiene compliance. It draws on an evidence-based, statistically-valid algorithm which determines how many times healthcare workers should have cleaned their hands, customized to each hospital unit based on the number of patients and frequency of care. The DebMed GMS is the only system available in Canada that tracks staff hand hygiene compliance based on the World Health Organization's "Four Moments for Hand Hygiene" standard that is commonly used in Canadian hospitals. The Four Moments are: before contact with the patient or patient environment (such as touching the bed rail or curtain); before an aseptic procedure such as starting an IV; after risk of exposure to body fluids; and after contact with the patient or patient environment.

"In our ongoing pilot of the DebMed GMS we saw an encouraging increase in hand hygiene rates. In the first two months hand hygiene adherence increased by 15 percent, and we believe that continuing increases can be achieved," said Dr. Allison McGeer, director of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

Shining the Light on Groups vs. Individuals
The DebMed GMS provides feedback on hand hygiene for each hospital unit as a group, which encourages higher compliance than tracking individual staff. Group monitoring is widely recognized as being more effective than other monitoring systems that track individuals' actions, which can be seen by staff as punitive or an invasion of privacy. Providing data to the unit encourages team collaboration in a positive manner as staff work together to improve compliance, resulting in better and longer-sustained results.

In addition to the ability to monitor the staff usage of the wall-mounted soap and sanitizer dispensers, the DebMed GMS system also includes the ability to track activity of sanitizer pump bottles utilized at the patient bedside to capture usage at the critical point-of-care.The system also provides supporting educational tools such as staff meeting facilitation guides and visual reminders to help enable positive behavior change and ultimately create a safer environment for the patient.

For more information on DebMed, visit www.debmed.com and DebMed's IPAC booth #611.

About DebMed®
DebMed is the healthcare program of the Deb Group. The DebMed program offers innovative hand hygiene products, electronic monitoring technology, and improvement tools to support hand hygiene compliance. The DebMed® GMS™ (Group Monitoring System), winner of the 2013 Frost & Sullivan Hand Hygiene Solutions New Product Innovation Award, is the world's first group monitoring system to report hand hygiene compliance rates based on the World Health Organization's (WHO) hand hygiene guidelines and to date has recorded more than 35 million hand hygiene events. The system is being utilized in a four year, multi-site research project being conducted by the Columbia University School of Nursing and funded by a $1.2 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). For more information, visit www.debmed.com.

About Deb Group
Possessing international scale and strong local market presence, Deb Group provides innovative skin care programs for all types of workplace and public environments, spanning industrial, commercial, healthcare and food sectors. Headquartered in the United Kingdom with US operations based in Charlotte, NC, Deb Group is comprised of 22 companies operating in 18 countries. For more information, visit www.debgroup.com.

SOURCE: DebMed

KNB Communications for DebMed: Amy DiSanto- [email protected] - 203.504.8230 ext. 124

http://www.debmed.com