Professional hygiene concept
Integral Service of Hand Hygiene is the name of a project from our site in Mexico, where patients are getting help with better infection protection and hospitals benefit from greater efficiency. B. Braun employees are showing health care workers and visitors in hospitals how safe hand disinfection works—around the clock, right there on the hospital wards. This program is supported by innovative technologies and digital applications; for example, an app for recording hand hygiene compliance, or a program that automatically records hand disinfectant consumption anywhere, in real time. A sustainable campaign with a future that B. Braun launched together with the Mexican Institute of Social Security, the largest health institute in Latin America.
„This project has allowed us to share knowledge but, at the same time, continue learning and contribute to caring for and improving people's health by preventing infections and saving lives.“
Fewer infections and shorter hospital stays
The outcome is impressive: 12,000 doctors and nurses were trained by 2021, and 115,000 patients and their relatives received advice. 5,000 nurses were trained with a black box that uses UV light to show where their hands haven’t been disinfected. In the hospitals where B. Braun employees carried out this training, over 50 percent fewer infections were recorded. At the same time, due to these higher hygiene standards, the average time spent in hospital was reduced by 58 percent. As a result, the beds in these hospitals could be used more efficiently and the workload was reduced for employees.
Multi-stage concept part of the WHO strategy
The project has been so successful that B. Braun has expanded it into a multi-stage concept and is also implementing it in Brazil and Chile. It is now part of the WHO’s Multimodal Hand Hygiene Strategy, leading to a sustainable improvement in infection protection all over the world. The concept will be offered in other countries. The Erciyes University Hospital in Kayseri, Turkey and the Hospital Universitario Fundación Alcorcón in Madrid, Spain, are already using this business model: Both institutions received the Hand Hygiene Excellence Award (HHEA), a prestigious prize awarded by experts from a highly-ranked independent commission after conducting an on-site audit.
