Free Healthcare Window Cards Remind Hospitals About Hand Hygiene To Help Avoid 2015 ACA Penalties
As new 2015 Affordable Care Act penalties take effect, Kutol Products Company reminds hospitals that practicing good hand hygiene lowers Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs). Starting this year, if a hospital falls into the bottom 25% of HAIs on a national basis, it will lose one percent of its Medicare revenue. Additionally, HAI rates are posted publicly online for consumers to view.
There are a number of factors that contribute to HAIs, however the easiest to address is proper hand hygiene. In a study conducted by the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare, hand hygiene compliance averaged just 47.5% across participating hospitals. It was shown that improving hand hygiene compliance from 40% to 65% reduced HAIs by 37%.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has weighed in, stating that “hand hygiene contributes significantly to keeping patients safe” and notes how healthcare workers may think certain procedures are safe, but in fact are capable of spreading microbes via their hands.
Some of the procedures that enable the transfer of microbes include:
• Taking a pulse
• Taking blood pressure readings
• Taking a temperature
• Touching a patient’s hand, shoulder or groin.
“One of the best reminders to healthcare workers to keep hands clean is to have plenty of hand hygiene stations in logical areas of the facility, such as at each patient room door,” notes Dan Renner, marketing director at Kutol Products Company.
“Since studies tell us that posting signage is also effective in increasing hand hygiene compliance, it makes sense for hospitals and healthcare facilities to place hand hygiene signs near dispensers,” Renner continues. “To that end, we created free dispenser window cards that can be easily placed in our new Designer Series hand soap and hand sanitizer dispensers. The message is simple, reminding healthcare workers that at each hand hygiene station, ‘Better Health Starts Here.’”
The free dispenser “Healthcare” window card can be downloaded from the Kutol Products Company website at https://www.Kutol.com. Look for Window Cards under the tools & Resources tab.
About KUTOL Products Company
Since 1912, KUTOL Products Company has enjoyed an excellent reputation for providing quality hand soaps, hand sanitizers and soap dispensing systems for commercial use. From manufacturing facilities and industrial plants, to healthcare and food service facilities, to office and school restrooms, KUTOL offers hand hygiene products for every need, and dispensing systems that stand up under the heaviest usage. The company manufactures hundreds of different hand hygiene products from moisturizing liquid soap to hard-working pumice-based options. There is a full range of antibacterial soaps and sanitizing foams and gels, as well as environmentally certified, Green Seal, USDA BioPreferred and EcoLogo approved products. The company manufactures 100% of its products in its LEED Silver Certified, FDA-registered facility in Sharonville, Ohio, following the most stringent government guidelines.