CHALLENGE

North Carolina-based Novant Health, a 12-hospital health system spanning several Southeastern states, needed to improve handwashing compliance. Novant’s initial benchmarking recorded compliance at less than 50% in some facilities.

SOLUTION

InSight’s Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Trend Charts actively monitored and shared compliance rates by nursing unit across all of the hospitals. Interactive tabular report views quickly and easily put important details like Quarter-to-Date and Year-to-Date results, as well as other important indicators, right at the fingertips of front line employees as well as management. InSight’s automated alerts feature notified managers of negative variances or unfavorable period-over-period changes right away so they could act quickly and accurately.

RESULTS

• Novant exceeded their goal and achieved a near-perfect 99% compliance rate within 30 months.
• The health system recorded a dramatic 53% reduction in MRSA patient infection rates!
• Novant was awarded the prestigious Codman Award, the Joint Commission’s award for the use of process and outcomes measurement in performance improvement. 
• Their success was presented at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s annual convention in December 2009.