SystemSure Helps Reduce Hospital Infections

Hygiena International has won a tender to supply all Scottish NHS Boards with the Hygiena SystemSure Plus ATP monitoring system. The system is already in use at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and is being widely used by Trust quality monitoring officers, ward matrons and domestic supervisors to check the cleanliness of patient areas within the hospitals.

The Scottish NHS Boards selected the Hygiena system after thorough trials carried out in Scotland.

Commenting on the importance of addressing infections in Scottish hospitals, Scottish Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, said: 'Tackling healthcare-associated infections is my top priority because it is vital that the public have confidence in the care they will receive if they need hospital treatment.'

Rachel Scott, business development manager for Hygiena International, said: 'The ATP monitor provides immediate feedback on the efficiency of cleaning. It detects the invisible contamination that potentially carries infectious agents and will certainly assist NHS Scotland in its ongoing fight against infection.'

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust previously relied on visual inspections of cleaning standards; but the handheld, lightweight Hygiena instruments are now providing a numerical result in seconds to show how clean or dirty a surface is. This enables the Trust to monitor the cleaning effectiveness of the hospital environment and of the patient equipment in use.

The Hygiena SystemSure Plus instruments were originally introduced by the Trust´s infection prevention and control department and have been used for handwashing training for several years.

A monthly programme of hygiene inspections using the Hygiena SystemSure Plus started in the Trust in May 2007 and every clinical in-patient area now undertakes routine swabbing on a monthly basis.

The instruments are also used for swabbing clogs within theatre, doctor´s pens and stethoscopes and the pods that are used to deliver goods between wards and departments within the Trust.