By Healthcare Facilities Today

Columbus, Ohio-based OhioHealth is launching a pilot project involving big data and wireless sensors to improve hand-washing efforts to fight infection, according to an article on the Fierce Health website.

The 17-hospital system will monitor staff hand-washing practices in real time using radio frequency identification technology (RFID) integrated with wireless sensors. The monitors have been installed at every hand-washing station at one OhioHealth's hospitals in Columbus, according to the article.

The effort has helped the hospital achieve more than 90 percent compliance with handwashing standards, the article said.

"Superbugs like MRSA can live for hours on surfaces, and we want to do everything we can to protect our patients from these kinds of serious infections," OhioHealth Senior Vice President and CIO Michael Krouse said in the article.

Research published last summer concluded that electronic monitoring helped to dramatically improve hand hygiene among nurses in Canada, the article said. For the study, researchers developed a system that automatically detected hand hygiene opportunities and recorded hygiene actions, and installed it at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.

Read the article.