| |
|
|
| HAI
Calculator |
| HAI
medical and legal costs nation-wide and for the average
hospital are shown in our HAI Cost Calculator. |
Enter
in your estimates to calculate Hospital HAI case,
deaths, legal and treatment costs.
Go to Calculator  |
|
|
|
|
 |
In the healthcare industry, HAI’s have reached epidemic proportion
throughout our healthcare system. Nationally, over 2 million people annually
contract an HAI and of this group nearly 150,000 die from their infection.
That is nearly 500 people a day which is more than those dying daily in
car accidents, from breast cancer and lung cancer… combined! The
need to better clean hands as well as the environment where immune-suppressed
patients are placed, is well known, yet current technologies/techniques
are inadequate. |
| Current
hand hygiene techniques (washing in a sink or using
alcohol based gels/foams) are very ineffective at reducing
the presence of microorganisms on the skin of people’s
hands to clinically safe levels. Therefore, contaminated
hands contribute to the transfer of these microorganisms
to other people (patients, patrons, fellow employees)
as well as onto surfaces where other people may come
into contact. |
| This
cross contamination impacts many industries financially,
as well as dramatically increasing the health risks
to employees, patients and patrons. All industries
operate using the same basic formula for cleanliness:
Cleaner Hands + Cleaner Surfaces = Lower Risk of Bio
Contamination |
| The
challenge is that target levels of reduced “Bio
Risk” exceed the current technologies and/or
techniques for “Bio Reduction”. Hand washing
in a sink with soap and water is subject to many inconsistencies
that can leave large colonies of microorganisms on
the skin. Factors like washing often enough, water
temperature, amount of soap, type of soap, amount of
rubbing/friction, length of rinsing and many other
variables can render this technique ineffective. This
technique has also proven to be very abrasive and drying
to the skin if multiple processes are required during
the day, as in the case of a nurse or doctor. |
| The
other technique that has gained in popularity over
the last few years is the practice of coating the hands
with a gel or foam containing 60 to 85% propyl alcohol
as its main active ingredient. This technique is also
subject to a great deal of inconsistencies due to factors
like the amount of gel used per treatment, amount of
rubbing/friction, amount of skin coverage, exposure
time due to climate conditions and many other variables.
This technique is very prone to causing skin irritation
and breakdown on the hands of employees that use this
process many times per day. Clinically, alcohol is
very ineffective at killing spores which are responsible
for a great number of the hospital acquired infections
(HAI’s) that are often fatal in the immune-suppressed
and elderly. |
|
|
|
|
