PhD Scientific Days 2021

HE_I_P: Health Sciences I. Posters

Scoring System to Compare the Reliability of Hand Disinfectant Solution Dispensers

Text of the abstract

Introduction Hand hygiene is essential in healthcare, therefore reliability of hand hygiene product dispensers is a key question. Previous studies reported that malfunction of dispensers is common issue in clinical use, and the phenomenon calls for quality assurance measures.
Aims The aim of this study was to develop a test method along with a scoring system that allows the comparison of dispensers according to their reliability.
Methods Accuracy of dispensing (dispensed volume divided by the adjusted or nominal volume), volume-loss over time and the effect of handrub level on the dispensed amount was compared by physical sampling and measurements. In the case of adjustable dispenser, the minimal and maximal adjusted volume was tested. The volume loss was measured after 5 and 15 minutes, as well as 1, 4 and 16 hours.
Result A scoring system was developed to rate the overall reliability of the dispensers, based on the measured parameters. Dispensers were scored on a scale from 0 to 10, where 10 means a perfectly working dispensers. 18 dispensers (5 wall-mounted and 13 plastic bottles) were tested and scored. The lowest score was derived to be 1.2, the highest score was 9.9.
Conclusion The scoring system can help to objectively rank dispensers based on how reliably they function in terms of accuracy of dosing. This can be helpful for monitoring of in-clinical infrastructure, and evaluation of new dispensers to be purchased to the wards.
Funding S.B. is supported by the ÚNKP-20-3-II-SE-24 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.

University and Doctoral School

Semmelweis University, Doctoral School of Health Sciences