Case Study: OhioHealth improves hand-washing compliance and reduces infection risk with IBM RFID analytics

First-of-a-Kind network solution analyzes and improves compliance with hospital hand-washing protocols

OhioHealth, a nonprofit, faith-based hospital system, faced the challenge of preventing healthcare-associated infections by finding a systematic way to monitor and improve staff compliance with hand-washing protocols. To address this, they worked with IBM to implement a smarter solution.

IBM deployed a first-of-its-kind network using wireless RFID-enabled sensors on sanitizer dispensers, paired with IBM Cognos Business Intelligence analytics. This solution provided near-real-time data and insights into hand-washing practices. The implementation by IBM helped improve compliance by 20 percent, which corresponds to a 4 percent reduction in infections. It also delivered compliance data 100 times faster than previous methods and reduced implementation costs by 10-15 percent.

OhioHealth

Michael Krouse

Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer, OhioHealth