Electronic surveillance of wall-mounted soap and alcohol gel dispensers in an intensive care unit

SummaryWe describe a battery-powered recording device incorporating a force-sensitive resistor and a microcontroller that records depressions of wall-mounted soap and alcohol gel dispensers. The device has a two-second (2 s) lockout built into it, so that a single record is associated with a single hand-hygiene episode. Recorders were implanted within the wall-mounted dispensers found in two bed areas and the entrance of a 16-bedded intensive care unit. The use of the bed area dispensers was correlated (r) with the dependency of the patient in the open bed area (r = 0.5, P < 0.01), as assessed using the UK Department of Health critical care minimum data set. Both bed areas and the entrance dispensers showed wide but different fluctuations in use throughout the 24 h day. The recording device may help in feedback about soap and gel use for hand-hygiene quality improvement and educational initiatives.