By Healthcare Facilities Today

"During International Infection Prevention Week, it provides the venue and opportunity to raise awareness of the important work being done to reduce hospital associated infections (HAIs) and improve the safety of healthcare workers and patients," says David Mackay, vice president sales and marketing, healthcare markets.

"We know that one of the single most important measures that reduce HAIs is effective hand hygiene.Our job at GOJO is to develop solutions that make hand sanitizing solutions easily accessible and top of mind for every healthcare worker that comes into contact with a patient. In the future, you will see a greater emphasis on electronic compliance monitoring systems, robust education and new transportable products to assist the healthcare professional in practicing good hand hygiene. The goal is to provide better outcomes with fewer hospital acquired infections."

To celebrate IIPW, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) created the "Infection Prevention and You" campaign with a new website (www.apic.org/infectionpreventionandyou) and resources for both patients and healthcare professionals. The campaign features a one-page infographic illustrating the steps patients can take to support infection prevention efforts in healthcare facilities and help lower their risk of infection. The infographic communicates three main points: what patients and families can do to play an active role in their care, what healthcare-associated infections are, and who the infection preventionist is.

GOJO is supporting IIPW by providing nearly 15,000 PURELL Advanced hand sanitizer and hand hygiene materials to healthcare facilities to celebrate the week. GOJO is sponsoring a Point of Care webinar for healthcare professionals at the American Journal of Infection Control Hand Hygiene Library (http://handhygiene.ajicjournal.org/) and providing complimentary hand hygiene infection prevention webinars, whitepapers and educational tools on its website at healthcare.gojo.com/education.

GOJO began selling PURELL® hand sanitizer in the healthcare market in 2001. The company has developed point of care solutions (POC), which is the location of three elements: the patient, the healthcare worker and the care or treatment involving the patient or the patient's surroundings. The POC products include fixed wall mounted dispensers, personal carriage, touchless dispensers, wipes and educational resources.