A CHIP IN THE SHOE MONITORS CAREGIVER’S HYGIENE

A Trial Program in a French Hospital Uses RFID Chips to Monitor Staff Hygiene Standards

The Hôpital Nord de Marseille, one of the largest public hospitals in the South-East of France has implemented a trial program that uses a shoe-worn chip to track hygiene compliance within the hospital. The trial is being conducted within the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases under the direction at the hospital. Each year, there are an estimated 800,000 cases of hospital-acquired infection within the French hospital system which results in more than 10,000 deaths per year. It is known that health professionals who fail to respect hygiene practices such as using alcohol-based hand rub contribute to the high number of nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections each year.

Medi-Handtrace, the system being tested in Marseille and developed by a consortium of two French companies (Micro BE and Ephygie-Hand) is based on a technology called RFID (radio frequency identification). A chip assigned to each staff member is placed in the sole of the shoe, while connected floor mats are installed in front of the hand-sanitizer dispensers. When the caregiver stands on the mat to wash their hands, the chip sends a recorded signal to a database. The system provides real-time data on the amount of alcohol-based hand-rub used by each member of staff and whether they are correctly observing hand disinfection protocols. This device “has been tested and perfected by caregivers for [the last] two years. It took time, and will enable the development of targeted actions to improve compliance rates,” says Professor Brouqui, director of the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the Hôpital Nord.