London’s University College Hospital says it is the UK’s first to introduce a ‘virtual nurse’ to greet staff and patients on arrival and remind them about good infection control practice.
Alongside reminding on the importance of hand hygiene and cleanliness, the ‘holographic’ virtual nurse, reflected via high definition video projectors onto a specially developed material, will also provide information on other Trust projects. The University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust says the device is just one tactic being used by UCH to improve awareness of the importance of infection control. Others include improved signage, recorded messages prompting staff and patients to clean their hands, patient information leaflets, and training and education programmes. Visitors will be regularly prompted by the virtual nurse, supplied by The Healthcare Messaging Group, and funded by Interserve Facilities Management, to clean their hands at the hospital’s many hand gel dispenser points. The unit has two built-in working dispenser units. During a short study with the virtual nurse located in the hospital’s main entrance, 173 (33 %) of the 610 visitors passing listened to its message and used its dispensers over a two-hour time slot, compared with a ‘hit rate’ of just 2.1% with the existing dispenser.
