Hospital Resorts To Cameras To Ensure Employees Wash Hands

onehitwonder writes "Long Island's North Shore University Hospital is using sensors and video cameras to make sure employees wash their hands, according to an article in today's New York Times. Motion sensors detect when hospital staff enter an intensive care unit, and the sensors trigger a video camera. Feeds from the video camera are transmitted to India, where workers there check to make sure staff are washing their hands. The NYT article notes that hospital workers wash their hands as little as 30 percent of the time that they interact with patients. The Big Brother like system is intended to reduce transmission of infections as well as the costs associated with treating them."

Comments

Re:Trust

[JDG1980]

Part of the problem is that the medical education system is deliberately set up to ensure a continuous shortage of doctors. As a result, all doctors have extremely high pay and are almost immune to any kind of employee discipline; they know that the hospital needs them more than they need it. We let the AMA run medicine like a medieval guild, while almost everyone else is exposed to ruthless market competition – it's no wonder that we get nonsense like this, and that health-care costs have been rising faster than inflation for decades.

Re:Groan

[Anonymous Coward]

Then you should switch type/brands! The use of sanitizer instead of soap and water for dentists and doctors here in Sweden have dramatically decreased skin problems as hand sanitizer in most cases are better in preserving skin moisture than (even mild/re-hydrating) soap. Sure there are brands that doesn't contain re-hydrating compounds and sure there are people just not "compatible" with sanitizers but in general it's a win.

Re:Groan

[Anonymous Coward]

much more than decades, It started with Semmelweis in the 1840s he was unable to convince doctors and eventually died in an asylum

Re:I loathe the medical "profession"

[BlueBlade]

Yeah, last time I had surgery, they wouldn't even lead me to any answer. It basically went :

Doctor : Why are you here?
Me : Surgery.
Doctor : What kind?
Me : Eye surgery to correct strabismus.
Doctor : Which eye?
Me : Left.

They didn't just read stuff asking me to confirm it, I actually had to give them the information. I assume this way there's much less risk of a patient just confirming all the surgeon's questions.