AL initiative uses tech to track hygiene compliance

Alabama's Putting Power into Healthcare Initiative (PPHI) bills itself as the first statewide effort to use a data-backed network to encourage and track hand-washing across multiple hospitals in a single state. The PPHI involves Birmingham, Ala.-based IT firm Proventix, Alabama Power and 27 participating hospitals—all working in concert to improve health-quality compliance. The initiative installs Proventix's nGage system in participating hospitals. nGage uses active communication screens and radio-frequency badges tied to a data and quality compliance system. By using nGage, hospitals measure when and how often their employees and healthcare professionals wash their hands.