Hero Program: A data-driven reward system to improve hand hygiene - 26/07/25
, Shaghayegh Chavoshian, BS a, b, Majid Janidarmian, PhD d, Simon Rustin, MASc d, Geoff Fernie, PhD a, b, c, d, e, Atena Roshan Fekr, PhD a, b, eCet article a été publié dans un numéro de la revue, cliquez ici pour y accéder
Résumé |
Background |
Healthcare-associated infections compromise patient outcomes and pose a burden on healthcare systems worldwide. Despite widespread awareness of the critical role of Hand Hygiene (HH) in preventing healthcare-associated infections, compliance among healthcare workers remains suboptimal. This study evaluates a reward program called the Hero Program which is designed to incentivize and sustain HH practices through positive reinforcement.
Methods |
The program used data from an electronic HH prompting system that has been installed in an inpatient unit in Toronto Rehabilitation Institute - University Health Network for 3years. A scoring algorithm was implemented to weigh individual HH compliance rates, considering workload and rewarding consistency. Daily winners were selected based on their scores and received gift card rewards.
Results |
The analysis of data from 61 caregivers and more than 566,000 records for approximately 2.5years indicates that the Hero Program led to an 11.45% increase in HH compliance after 120days of implementation. This is a promising finding, suggesting that the program was effective in promoting behavior change early on. Compliance rates continued to improve over time, reaching 94% 1year later.
Conclusions |
This sustained improvement suggests that the program had a long-lasting positive impact on HH practices in the unit.
Le texte complet de cet article est disponible en PDF.Highlights |
• | The Hero Program increased hand hygiene (HH) compliance by 11.45% in 120days. |
• | Compliance reached 94% after a year, with reduced variability. |
• | Novel scoring weighted compliance by workload and recent wins for fairness. |
• | Analysis of 566,000 records confirmed sustained behavior change. |
• | First study to integrate gamification with electronic monitoring for HH adherence. |
Key Words : Electronic hand hygiene monitoring, Gamification, Hand hygiene compliance, Health care-associated infections, Infection prevention, Positive reinforcement
Plan
| Conflicts of interest: Geoff Fernie is a founder and unpaid CEO of Hygienic Echo, a startup company that has commercialized the electronic hand hygiene system called Buddy Badge to bring the results of research to market. The concept described in this publication is incorporated into products. Moreover, Dr Fernie is named inventor on several patents related to the technology used in this study, but he receives no royalties. He has stock in the startup company. Majid Janidarmian is the co-CEO and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Hygienic Echo. He also holds stock in the company. Simon Rusin is the Director of Software Engineering at Hygienic Echo. Geoff Fernie contributed to the supervision, review, and revision of this work. Majid Janidarmian was involved in the methodology and review of the study. Simon Rusin contributed to integrating the work with the Hygienic Echo system. Atena Roshan Fekr, Ali Barzegar Khanghah, and Shaghayegh Chavoshian declare no conflicts of interest. |
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| Funding: This work was funded by Mitacs Accelerate (grant#:IT31599). This work was also supported by The Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium (EPIC) at University of Toronto. |
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