H.12 Device Solution to Ensure Accurate and Adequate Timing for Incision Surgical Skin Prep and Solution Dry Time 

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are the most common and costly hospital-acquired infections, accounting for 20% of HAIs in hospitalized patients.  The skin prep prior to the incision or puncture is one of the most effective ways to prevent infection, if done correctly.  The largest barrier, currently, is timing the incision prep time (30 seconds for a dry site and 2 minutes for a moist site), and the dry time after prep, which is generally 3 minutes. 

Currently, clinical units and procedural areas have expressed challenges in knowing the amount of time that has passed once the skin prep agent has been applied as well as how long the skin prep agent as been applied at the incision site.  Being that this task is an important part of prevention infections at the procedural site, the need for accurate timing is imperative. However, wall clocks are not always available, not always available with a second hand and not always easily visible to the procedural or clinical staff member.  

 The goal of this project is to design a device that can be used to measure the prep time at the incision site for CHG skin prep, as well as the dry time after the CHG is applied.  Ideally, this device would be “activated” at the time the CHG applicator process has started for the incision site and has been completed for the entire skin prep to start the time to appropriate prep.