By HFT Editorial Staff

Gulfside Healthcare Services, one of Florida’s most reputed providers of chronic and end-of-of life illness care, has become the first healthcare provider of its kind to deploy the SafeHaven Personal Hand Hygiene Monitoring System from GP PRO. The SafeHaven System combines a wearable hand-sanitizing device with real-time, cloud-based reporting and personalized feedback to support sustained hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers.

“Gulfside’s commitment to hand hygiene is not new, but in the past, there wasn’t a viable tool to let us demonstrate that commitment to our staff,” says Maria Greskowiak, BSN, RN, CHPN, manager of education and infection prevention at Gulfside. “By literally putting hand hygiene compliance in the palm of our staff’s hands, the SafeHaven System is helping us impart the high value we place on hand hygiene, infection reduction, and patient safety.”

The SafeHaven System combines a wearable, work-friendly sanitizing device with real-time, cloud-based reporting and personalized feedback. The always-present device fits seamlessly into the clinical workflow, delivering an alcohol hand rub anywhere, anytime, virtually eliminating common day-to-day hand hygiene disruptors. Users receive immediate hand hygiene compliance feedback on their device while group and individual data is collated in a central dashboard.

“As an infection preventionist, the reporting is invaluable as it allows me to identify high performers as well as outliers who may need additional coaching,” adds Greskowiak. “As a nurse, the wearable device provides the peace of mind of knowing that I never have to choose between delivering patient care and performing hand hygiene.”

“Hand hygiene compliance is critical to reducing the incidence of healthcare-associated infections and improving overall patient care and outcomes,” says Eric Jungslager, vice president, healthcare, with GP PRO, a division of Georgia-Pacific. “By leveraging the SafeHaven System, Gulfside is turning its recognition of this into action and is proving itself a true leader in the delivery of compassionate, patient-oriented healthcare.”

Gulfside activated its SafeHaven Personal Hand Hygiene Monitoring System in April of 2021, at which time devices were assigned to 217 patient-facing staff members in hospice, palliative care, and home health. The healthcare provider is currently advancing staff engagement through compliance training and coaching and anticipates seeing a reduction in infection rates in the coming months.