Cross-border cooperation to improve health and hygiene standards: OPHARDT hygiene is project partner in „health-i-care“

Development of pioneering solutions to prevent infections in schools and care institutions

Issum, December 19. The first kick-off meeting of health-i-care: innovations for safer healthcare took place at the end of November. In a framework of crossborder projects German and Dutch experts from industry, science and health industry are working together on the development of innovative solutions for infection prevention.

OPHARDT hygiene participates in this ambitious project as one of more than 30 companies from the German-Dutch border. „We are delighted to be able to work within the scope of the health-i-care project to develop practical solutions to improve infection prevention“, says Heiner Ophardt, CEO of OPHARDT hygiene, after the kickoff meeting.
In this project the company based in the lower Rheine area of Germany focuses on the prevention of infections in schools and care homes, after all meticulous hand hygiene does not only play a major role in hospitals.

Hygiene monitoring: Improving hand hygiene in care homes

In care homes many of the elderly inhabitants are at a higher risk of infection due to chronic illnesses or general weakness. Therefore careful and thorough hand hygiene is of utmost importance. Often hand hygiene recommendations are not always fulfilled and compliance is low – a similar situation found in hospitals. This is where the OPHARDT Hygiene Monitoring System® starts: the fully integrated system solution for automatic hand hygiene monitoring continually measures all hand hygiene behavior patterns precisely. Any necessary improvements can be implemented promptly.
The system is used successfully within hospitals since 2011. Within the scope of health-i-care the OPHARDT Hygiene Monitoring System® is now to be adapted to the conditions found in care homes.

Child oriented dispensing systems motivate school children to wash hands

Within the health-i-care project OPHARDT hygiene develops dispensers together with hygiene experts and teachers for use in primary schools. The aim: to support and develop the awareness of children to the importance of hand hygiene – this is supported with child-oriented „hardware“ to support hygiene education.
The general requirements for dispensers in all public areas, such as sturdiness, and fast service play an equally important role in product development as child oriented ergonomics and aesthetics.


health-i-care: innovations for safer healthcare
The project health-i-care: innovations for safer healthcare is based on a concrete request from customers and consumers in Germany and the Netherlands to prevent infections. The project will run for 4 years and has a budget of around 7,2 Mio. Euro. It is conducted and financed within the framework of the INTERREG Programms Deutschland-Nederland and supported by the EU, the Dutch ministry of economics, the ministry for economy, energy and industry, medium and small sized companies from North Rhine-Westphalia, the Lower Saxony state chancellery as well as by the Dutch provinces of Drenthe, Flevoland, Fryslân, Gelderland, Groningen, Noord-Brabant und Overijssel.

OPHARDT hygiene

The family owned business group OPHARDT hygiene develops, manufactures and distributes an encompassing product range of dispensers and complete hygiene solutions for the implementation of the highest hygienic standards in the realms of medicine, pharmacy and food processing facilities, as well as for use in public washrooms. As a business with more than 50 years of experience, world-wide success and European roots, six production sites and more than 450 employees, consistent customer focus and future-oriented innovations are the basis for a sustainable business development.

www.ophardt.com
www.compliance-campus.com

OPHARDT HYGIENE-TECHNIK GmbH + Co. KG
Lindenau 27
D-47661 Issum
Germany

Press & Media Relations
Corporate Communications
Markus Hochkirchen
mhochkirchen@ophardt.com
Phone +49 (0)2835 18-141

This release was published on openPR.