There is an initial cost to purchase and install the system depending on the number of beds. This cost can sometimes be lower with quantity discounts. The system will function immediately with no additional investment. However, service packages with different types of reports are available for monthly subscription fees.

We cover this cost but are open to seeking sponsorship. The cost is $10 per day per nursing unit which is very modest for the remarkable result achieved. The program seems to follow the Nudge Theory which states that minor environmental incentives can have a big effect on behaviour.

Yes, Buddy Badge is installed in hospital, long term care, and clinic settings. References available on request.

It takes a week or two of planning and preparation offsite. A typical nursing unit might take 1 or 2 days on-site for installation.

The wearable badge enables us to provide 3 important and very effective capabilities:

• The badge provides discrete reminders to the wearer when an opportunity for hand hygiene has been missed so that this omission can be corrected immediately. Getting a memo at some future date about the need to increase group compliance is obviously not as effective as an immediate personalized prompt,
• The badge enables the system to recognize and reward high achievers.
• Let me give another example of why a badge is essential. Suppose the compliance entering a room is 90%. There is a big difference between 10 caregivers scoring 90% each and 9 scoring 100% with one scoring 0% who moved from room to room with little or no hand hygiene. So the risk to the patient is likely much higher with the second scenario even though the group compliance is the same with both scenarios.

Buddy Badge uses near-visible (infrared) light to communicate with the zone markers that tell it where it is and with the dispenser counters that tell it when soap or hand sanitizer are used. Buddy Badge has its own miniature computer onboard to control prompting and data recording.

They work with all types of wall or floor-stand dispensers.

The system issues a Buddy Badge each time staff show the kiosk scanner their QR code. The number of badges needed is equal to the maximum number of users of the system anticipated at any time.

Individual users can view their own performance on any device with internet access. Staff, such as managers and IPAC staff, can be authorized to view data from all staff individually and in aggregate. There is a wide range of reports that are optionally available. It is even possible to watch an animation of workers moving around showing when HH was performed during a selected period of time.

The Buddy Badge Hero Award Program calculates a winner every night for each nursing unit and automatically sends a congratulatory email with a gift card attached. The names of winners are also automatically displayed on the kiosk unless anonymous. The Buddy Badge Hero Reward Program is optional at the discretion of the client institution

When the Buddy Badge is returned to the recharging station at the kiosk the data is automatically uploaded to the secure database in the cloud. Individual users can view their own performance on any mobile device. Staff, such as managers and IPAC staff, can be authorized to view data from all staff individually and in aggregate. There is a wide range of reports that are optionally available. It is even possible to watch an animation of workers moving around showing when HH was performed during a selected period of time.

It catches virtually all of them

If the individual is going to exit a room carrying clean objects then s/he can simply perform hand hygiene before picking up the objects. The Buddy Badge will glow green for one minute during which the room can be exited without scoring a missed opportunity. If a contaminated object is to be taken out of the room then the Buddy Badge will issue an exit prompt but the missed opportunity will not be scored if the individual goes straight to the dirty utility room and performs hand hygiene on exiting that utility room.

Yes, the system does measure the number of times soap and sanitizer are dispensed.

Buddy Badge has a capability called ‘interval prompting’. The customer can ask for this to be implemented in any common space. The Buddy Badge will prompt on entry and exit from this space in the usual way. It also has an internal timer that will prompt at a fixed time interval so that the individual does not go without performing hand hygiene at least once in this interval. Each time hand hygiene is performed the timer is automatically reset to the interval set by IPAC.

The philosophy of our program is that the badge system is your “buddy”. We emphasize providing unobtrusive reminders when busy caregivers sometimes forget. We know that rewarding good performance is much more effective than punishing errors. We assume that care providers are good people and do not need us to watch them do their hand hygiene routine. However, Buddy Badge has the capability to incorporate a monitoring feature that assesses whether caregivers spend a specified amount of time on hand hygiene practices to qualify as successful compliance.

Buddy Badge measures an accurate rate based on many thousands of opportunities. It is well-established that traditional audit systems overestimate compliance by as much as 2 to 3 fold.

The badge battery only has to last for one shift since it is automatically charged between shifts. The Zone Markers and Dispenser Counters need to have their batteries replaced approximately every 6 months. These devices send signals to the Buddy Badges that include their battery status so that the Buddy Badge system maintenance software sends messages indicating when the time to change batteries has come. It is a very simple task and uses inexpensive regular ‘D’ cells.

We have experimented with removing the badge system after a month of use and seen compliance drop back to baseline over about 8 to 12 weeks. This demonstrated that the system is needed to maintain high performance. The reward system seems to maintain a sustainable high performance.

The Buddy Badge has a battery life of at least a couple of days so it can be returned later to the badge recharging station and the data will still be good.

We collect basic information (names, emails, roles) for registering you in the Buddy Badge System and following your hand hygiene performance. We collect data on the time and location of each dispenser activation (and each user’s presence) in areas where Buddy Badge is installed and actively used. No personal health information is collected. Please visit www.buddybadge.ca/privacy for more information. We have implemented a plethora of security features including encryption (at rest and in transit), monitoring our systems (who accessed what data at what time), access control (MFA and different access privileges), vulnerability management (third-party regular vulnerability scanning of our application), and security awareness training for all employees. We also have technical controls (AWS configuration) and administrative controls (20+ security and privacy policies).

This is a policy decision to be made by the client institution. We can provide every individual with the option to choose to be anonymous using a tick box on their profile.

Data will not be shared with any third-party companies or used for research publications without the prior consent of the client organization.

Existing auditing processes typically capture very small samples of data (usually much less than 1%). Buddy Badge captures all opportunities and events (usually many thousands). Buddy Badge collects, stores and reports results automatically. Additionally, it has been observed that existing auditing processes tend to overestimate hand hygiene compliance by 2.5 or more, primarily due to the presence of an auditor. However, Buddy Badge has the capability to accurately calculate hand hygiene compliance.

Buddy Badge provides staff with instant intelligent reminders when it sees that hand hygiene has been forgotten. The reminders are discrete and adjustable. The reminding prompts fit into the workflow without being unnecessarily disruptive. Buddy Badge goes beyond being a passive monitoring system, distinguishing itself from most other monitoring systems. Its intelligent prompting system actively changes user behavior, leading to improved compliance rates. Additionally, by implementing a reward system for high performance, Buddy Badge ensures that the improvement in hand hygiene practices is sustainable over time which is unique to Buddy Badge System.

We have seen remarkable improvements are possible with sustained results above 90%. However, the results that are actually achieved depend greatly on the level of support provided by management and IPAC for making the use of Buddy Badge a mandatory part of the job and for reinforcing positive feedback for high-performing staff.

Absolutely not. The Buddy Badge uses no radio frequency communication.

If the IPAC leadership agrees then we can turn on a special feature. Under this option, when the badge wearer enters a room and receives an entry prompt, the individual can choose to respond within the 20 second duration of the prompt by performing hand hygiene OR by leaving the room. If s/he chooses to leave the room within the 20 seconds then no missed opportunity will be recorded.

The system is customizable. Please talk to us about the feasibility of your request.

The answer to this question is “Yes”. But we only do this when there is a solid partition separating the beds. A privacy curtain is known to be an ineffective barrier and there is no point in attempting to separate contacts with patients in adjacent beds.

A great deal of useful data is available to help management achieve operating efficiencies. Please share your need and we will see what we can do to meet it.

We can do this if you wish.