Electronic reminders increased patient adherence to antiseptic showering regimen

Participants who received electronic reminders were more likely to adhere to a preadmission antiseptic showering regimen known to help reduce surgical-site infection risk, according to study results published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

“In general, getting patients to comply with this preadmission cleansing strategy is a challenge throughout health care,” study author Charles E. Edmiston, PhD, a professor of surgery and hospital epidemiologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, said in a press release. “While patients want to be compliant, they will often forget to fulfill this preadmission requirement. So, that’s why we looked to new technology for a solution.”

Edmiston and colleagues randomly assigned 80 healthy volunteers to undergo either two (group A) or three (group B) skin antiseptic showers. Members of groups A1 and B1 were prompted to shower through voicemail, text messaging or email, whereas groups A2 and B2 did not receive a prompt. Three hours after their last shower, participants returned to the laboratory to have their skin-surface chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) analyzed at five separate sites on their bodies. Compliance was measured by skin-surface concentrations of CHG in all 80 participants.

According to study results, CHG skin-surface concentrations were significantly higher among participants who received alerts compared with those who did not. When comparing groups A1 and A2, the researchers found a 66% reduction in the composite mean concentration of CHG on the skin surface in patients who were not alerted to shower and a 67% reduction on patients who were not alerted to shower in groups B1 and B2.

Reference: Edmiston CE. J Am Coll Surg. 2014;doi:10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2014.01.061.

Disclosure: Edmiston received grants from CareFusion.