Project Description: 

Nearly 300,000 hospitalized patients develop hospital acquired pneumonia or HAP each year; that’s equivalent to the population of Tampa, FL. Most HAP cases are in ventilated patients which is becoming ever more prevalent due to COVID-19. HAP leads to increased mortality rates and extra treatment costs of estimated $40,000 per patient. The biggest risk factor is insufficient oral care which leads to micro-aspiration of bacteria in the mouth. Current oral care solutions require nurses to perform multiple, time consuming steps several times a day and lack compliance tracking. We believe there’s a better solution, so we have created an action tracking, dispensing oral care kit to prevent HAP. This design includes intuitive packaging that streamlines the process to reduce the burden on nurses, consisting of a tension loaded mechanism to push the next cleaning iteration forward after the previous step is removed. A solution dispensing suction handle has also been innovated to decrease the total amount of time needed to perform the oral cleaning steps. Finally, the design also includes a compliance driving, action tracking system, in which a sticker is removed and placed on a color-coded tracking sheet each time a cleaning step is completed. The solution is tested for the speed and effectiveness of the cleaning process, as well as for the efficacy of the compliance tracking aspect. Speed and effectiveness of the solution will be tested against competitor products measuring how long the process takes and what percent of the mouth is sufficiently cleaned. The compliance driving aspect is tested to ensure the status of the cleanings is visible without entering the patient’s room.