CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Building on its strategic partnership with SwipeSense, a healthcare technology company on a mission to eliminate harm and waste in healthcare, Novant Health is expanding SwipeSense technology for electronic hand hygiene monitoring, automated contact tracing, and real-time equipment tracking across the health system. The COVID-19 pandemic created more areas of opportunity to use technology to contain the virus. Novant Health’s use of SwipeSense creates an even stronger safety infrastructure within its facilities with real-time tracking of safety behaviors.
Currently installed at Novant Health Charlotte Orthopedic Hospital, Novant Health Matthews Medical Center and Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center, this expansion includes deployment at nine additional hospitals and 10 outpatient ambulatory surgery centers across North Carolina. The decision to expand system-wide demonstrates Novant Health’s transformative approach to ensure the safety of patients, team members, and visitors during the COVID-19 crisis, but is part of a broader investment in safety and quality.
The two organizations established a partnership in 2018 following impressive improvement and adoption at Novant Health Matthews Medical Center in Matthews, North Carolina. Within the first year of implementation, Matthews Medical Center attributed a transformative shift in a positive culture of safety, as well as behavior change to the actionable, measurable insights offered through SwipeSense.
In addition to hand hygiene compliance metrics, the technology has the potential to help with contact tracing through real-time employee badge data, which can automatically track employee-patient, and employee-employee contacts. SwipeSense allows leaders to generate exposure reports that identify at-risk staff, patients, and medical equipment that might have been in contact with an individual infected with COVID-19 or other infectious disease.
“At Novant Health, we are committed to leveraging advanced technologies that allow us to provide the best and safest care for our patients,” said Dr. Eric Eskioglu, executive vice president and chief medical officer, Novant Health. “For every patient we prevent a hospital acquired infection is a human being with a name, a story, and a family with fears and hopes – someone who deserves our utmost care, attention and meticulous safety practices. Our expanded partnership with SwipeSense will help us in our relentless pursuit of zero hospital acquired infections and serious safety events.”
Electronic monitoring positions all facilities to meet or maintain The Leapfrog Group’s updated hand hygiene standards for hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. Nine of Novant Health’s hospitals received an ‘A’ Grade in the Leapfrog Group’s Spring 2020 Hospital Safety Report. This and other public hospital ratings are critical in communicating to patients quality, safety, and consumer experience. The SwipeSense Asset Tracking module is also seen as an essential part of delivering a safe, positive patient experience. In addition to reducing the time nurses spend looking for equipment, real-time location data has decreased lost asset rates to as low as 3% at Matthews Medical Center, proving immediate and long-term cost savings allowing funds to be allocated to other important needs.
“Our solution is designed to support and drive optimal clinical and operational efficiencies, and now more than ever, we’re seeing hospitals prioritize improvement in these areas,” said Mert Iseri, CEO of SwipeSense. “We know it’s been an incredibly challenging year for healthcare, and we’re honored to work with world-class organizations like Novant Health to define the future of safety. They are clear leaders for other hospitals and health systems to follow as the industry works toward recovery and growth in the post-COVID-19 era.”
This expansion demonstrates the growth and impact SwipeSense, part of SC Johnson Professional and an SC Johnson company, has achieved through the development of tactile, innovative solutions. Together, SwipeSense and SC Johnson Professional Healthcare are providing world-class technology and products to support safety infrastructure and is dedicated to partners like Novant Health who will drive continuous innovation in safety.
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