By Healthcare Facilities Today

HARLOTTE, N.C . — DebMed, creator of the world's first electronic hand hygiene compliance monitoring system based on the World Health Organization's (WHO's) Five Moments for Hand Hygiene, introduced  today  the availability of a new dispenser that provides access to hand sanitizer in the immediate area within the patient zone. The dispenser supplements the standard wall-mounted unit, providing point-of-care accessibility that will enable healthcare facilities to more readily comply with the WHO Five Moments of Hand Hygiene.

"DebMed is committed to innovation in healthcare hand hygiene solutions in order to help decrease the number of healthcare-associated infections. By expanding our portfolio, we aim to help healthcare facilities increase their hand hygiene compliance rates by making it as easy as possible for healthcare workers to sanitize before, during and after providing patient care," said Heather McLarney, Vice President of Marketing at DebMed.

As defined by the WHO, point-of-care is the place where three elements come together: the patient, the healthcare worker and care or treatment involving contact with the patient or their surrounding area. A key element of the DebMed point-of-care dispenser is that it has flexible mounting options, allowing the dispenser to easily attach to beds, carts and bedside tables. This provides the most efficient way to save staff valuable time without interrupting clinical workflow, and enables them to adhere to proper hand hygiene with WHO and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) hand hygiene standards. Based on the WHO’s guidelines for hand hygiene, the point-of-care dispensers will allow for hand hygiene before touching the patient, before aseptic procedures, after potential exposure to bodily fluids, after touching the patient and after touching the patients’ surroundings. Another unique feature is that the point-of-care dispenser is lockable, protecting the sanitizer bottle from theft and being misplaced, ensuring staff access to sanitizer within the patient zone.

HAIs continue to be an ongoing issue in hospitals, with one in twenty patients infected with an HAI and nearly 100,000 deaths each year from these infections. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), over one half of all hospital infections are preventable.

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) is the world’s first group monitoring system to report hand hygiene compliance rates in real-time based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “Five Moments for Hand Hygiene” and to date has recorded more than 16 27 million hand hygiene events. The electronic monitoring 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). It is the first study aimed at reducing healthcare-associated infections in pediatric long-term care facilities by improving staff compliance with hand hygiene guidelines.  Deb is the first hand hygiene company in the world to provide actionable information along with its hand hygiene products to help drive best practices and improved outcomes for patients worldwide.

For more information on the study or DebMed, 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 21 companies operating in 16 countries.  For more information, visit www.debgroup.com.