OPTIDOSE™: Helping you provide hygienic environments for your staff & patients

The people that use our products are at the heart of everything we do. For decision-makers in healthcare, we know that your priority is patient and staff safety and hand hygiene is one of your gateways to delivering this. Using the right dosage of the right product, with the right technique at the right times allows you to be sure that your staff are helping to prevent the spread of infection in your facility.

But how can you be sure that you are getting hand hygiene right, especially when it comes to sanitising? We know that there are many factors at play here: the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, the efficacy of the product (e.g. EN 1500), its dwell or wet time, the amount of product to use, adequate coverage on the hands and fingertips, product feel and aesthetics – taking on board all these factors can seem overwhelming when you are choosing the right product for your staff, and their preference and real-world usage must be taken into account too.

The situation

In conversation with Infection Prevention & Control leaders, our Research & Development (R&D) professionals found that there was a myriad of different sanitiser products with different formats (foam, gel or liquid) and dose sizes available in the market to healthcare professionals. These products come in a range of dispenser types, from wall mounted to pump-top dispensers and can vary in quality, particularly when it comes to dispensing performance and delivering the same dosage per push each time the dispenser is used. One independent research study found that over 30% of the wall mounted dispensers investigated delivered a sub-optimal amount of product during typical usage; in some cases delivering 30% less than the manufacturer’s indicated volume per press .[1]  These were also failing to meet other crucial requirements when it came to hand hygiene standards.

Furthermore, the WHO guidelines of 20-30 seconds of wet time for an effective hand disinfection[2],  and the volume and wet times required to meet the testing standard EN 1500  (which typically requires 3ml of product) [3] present a conflict in guidance and a challenge in real world situations.  EN 1500 is a test standard to assess the efficacy of products claiming an antimicrobial action, and was not originally designed as a means to define product dosage; however this is increasingly becoming normal practice. European regulations require manufacturers to support their label claims with data – principally, that they are compliant with EN 1500. This typically means 3ml of product, which is difficult to handle, or requires multiple dispenser dosages, longer drying times and poor overall aesthetics depending on format [4], all of which is impractical for busy healthcare workers under pressure.

Dedicated to creating the best solution for healthcare workers, our R&D team focused on the four crucial elements required for effective hand hygiene:

• Efficacy – the sanitiser must be fully tested in accordance with EN standards and proven to have broad spectrum efficacy against bacteria, viruses, yeasts and mycobacteria.
• Wet time – the dosage must allow the hands to be wet for long enough to allow the product to be effective – for example, in line with WHO guidelines of 20-30 seconds.
• Hand coverage – the dosage must provide optimal coverage of the hands, regardless of hand size.
• User preference and convenience – perhaps previously overlooked, the format and sensory aesthetic aspect of a sanitiser must be taken into account, or you risk reduced compliance[5].

As someone responsible for infection control, how do you ensure that these four key elements are met? How do we, as hand hygiene experts, help ensure that sanitiser dosages are practical and effective for you and your staff to use in real-world healthcare environments? Our R&D professionals took on the task.

The research

Studying both variations in dosage, format, and user preference, our R&D team found some surprising results.

There was found to be no difference in efficacy when it came to format[6] - but gels were associated with slightly longer drying times[7]. It was found that 3ml of sanitiser gave the best coverage when it came to applying to hands[8] – however, the higher the dosage, the more difficult the product was to handle and the worse the sensory aesthetic was meaning fewer users enjoyed the product.

The most enlightening findings came from researching user preferences. It was found that recommendations and guidelines often did not reflect or account for real, practical usage in healthcare[9]. Healthcare workers and professionals preferred the shortest possible wet time[10], and often only used one pump or dosage of sanitiser per hand hygiene event[11]. With this in mind, it was crucial that the format, amount and efficacy of sanitiser was right for a single dosage – as research shows that lower user satisfaction with the product can lead to lower compliance rates[12] and thus a greater risk of infection spread.

The solution - OPTIDOSE™

To help you and your team be as sure as possible that you are practising the best hand hygiene, our R&D team developed OPTIDOSE™.

With one pump, you can be sure that your staff are using enough foam sanitiser to keep hands wet in line with WHO recommendations, to cover their hands fully and to kill 99.999% of many common germs. Due to our proprietary OPTIDOSE™ pump design, our dispenser delivers the same dose at every press when used correctly for the lifetime of the product, helping you ensure peace of mind for your facility and staff.

The foam format has been proven to be well-liked; when comparing InstantFOAM® alcohol-based hand sanitiser with alcohol gel, we found that 81% of users preferred InstantFOAM® for skin integrity and 88% preferred its feel[13]. InstantFOAM® sanitisers have also been tested and proven to be non-drying to skin, even under the high frequency usage conditions experienced by healthcare workers.

Foam brings the benefits of liquid and gel together – giving your users maximum handleability with no sticky after-feel, helping to ensure a well-liked, well-used product, matching their behaviour and ensuring that optimal dosages are given for an effective hand hygiene event.

A single dose from the OPTIDOSE™ pump:

• Keeps hands wet for 30 seconds in line with WHO recommendations*
• Provides enough foam to fully wet hands
• Leaves hands dry in 30 seconds

*For hygienic skin disinfection according to EN 1500 standard, apply 2 doses (3ml)

More than this, we recognise that your staff are carrying out hundreds of hand hygiene events each day, and that skin care products need to be gentle and kind to skin. Our InstantFOAM® alcohol sanitiser has a clinically proven skin friendly formula, is formulated to have low allergic potential to the skin and has been assessed by an independent toxicologist as "Skin Hypoallergenic" [14]

To find out more about OPTIDOSE™ simply get in touch