DebMed case study

A Helping Hand for Deb Group

Hand hygiene compliance monitoring 

DebMed case studyHealthcare-associated infections remain one of the most significant sources of morbidity and mortality among hospital patients worldwide. 

However, monitoring compliance with the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in HealthCare is not always easy. Self-reporting of hand hygiene compliance by Health Care Workers (HCW) has been shown to be unreliable, as HCWs often tend to overestimate their level of compliance. 

To help to combat this issue, the DebMed Electronic Hand Hygiene Compliance System (EHHCS), automatically detects hand-wash "events" to more accurately monitor hand hygiene compliance. 

This is achieved by installing an Electronic Monitoring System inside the soap dispenser, which automatically reports to a web-based Dashboard DebMed GMS for analysis. 

Next generation embedded software development process

deb med resultsWhen it came to developing the next generation of the EHHCS system, Deb Group was keen to ensure they were continuing to use the best and latest practices, as part of their embedded software development process. 

Feabhas responded to their initial Agile-related enquiry by suggesting a short consultancy project. This involved a day’s audit of Deb’s embedded software development process and practices, followed by a detailed report and practical recommendations. 

A great result

Deb Group was delighted with the outcome. Paul Dodds, Electronics Development Manager, immediately started putting some of the learning into practice and updating Deb’s suite of development tools to enable full use of the techniques we covered on the day.

 “I found the day to be of tremendous value. It opened my eyes to a world of opportunities; not only how we ‘should’ be working but also how we ‘could’ be working. It’s fair to say that it has completely changed the way I work! 

The report was excellent. The content reflected the details of how we currently work, the steps we discussed on the day, whilst going further and directing further research. Finally, I have to say that the Feabhas blog is a very useful resource indeed and the work I have done above reflects that as I drew it all from the blog.”

Paul Dodds, Electronics Development Manager at Deb Group

“We were delighted to have the opportunity to work with Paul to improve the embedded processes at Deb Group. Paul’s feedback is testimony to how a short consultancy project can make a real difference - and very quickly. And we wish them well with their future developments.” 

Niall Cooling, MD at Feabhas