If your facility uses Kontakt.io Hand Hygiene, you've been given a Smart Badge to wear during your shift. Here's what you need to know about wearing your badge and how the system works around you.
What Hand Hygiene is
Hand Hygiene measures hand hygiene compliance across all patient care areas in your facility. The system uses your Smart Badge and the dispensers around you to detect when hand hygiene happens, every shift, every patient room visit.
Your facility uses the data to see where compliance is trending well, identify units or roles that could benefit from extra support, and recognize teams and individuals doing the work. The goal is a clear picture of hand hygiene across the whole facility so the right support reaches the right places. Hand Hygiene is for trend analysis and coaching, not individual disciplinary use.
Your role: wear the badge
The system works automatically. You don't have to log anything, scan anything, or change your workflow during your shift.
What you do:
- Wear your Smart Badge during every shift, on the front of your scrubs or your lanyard, where it isn't covered by other clothing.
- Use the dispensers as you normally would. Wash in when you enter a patient room and wash out when you leave.
That's the whole interaction.
What happens automatically
While you're on shift, the system:
- Detects when you enter or leave a patient room. As you move between rooms, the Kontakt.io devices in each room recognize which room you're in.
- Records each time you use a hand sanitizer or soap dispenser (using small Dispenser Beacons attached to the dispensers).
- Links each room visit with whether you washed in and washed out within the expected window.
The results go to the Compliance Analytics page in Hand Hygiene for administrators, and (if your facility uses it) to the Kio Nurse Assistant mobile app for you personally.
See your own data: Kio Nurse Assistant
Kio Nurse Assistant is an optional mobile app that gives you a private view of your own compliance. If your facility has it enabled, you can install it on your mobile device and see:
- Your weekly compliance trend.
- How your department is progressing through the current season.
- Prizes you can win through the Raffle based on your performance.
In Kio Nurse Assistant, you see only your own data plus department-level summaries, and other staff appear without names. Your department's Team Dashboard shows its top three performers by name.
For step-by-step details, see Using the Kio Nurse Assistant app.
What's expected of you
You're expected to:
- Wear and care for your badge during every shift.
- Continue performing hand hygiene as you've been trained.
- Report a damaged or lost badge to your administrator so it can be replaced.
You aren't expected to change how you do your job, log anything manually, or use the Kio Nurse Assistant app unless you choose to.
Common questions
Q: Does this replace clinical hand hygiene policy? A: No. Hand Hygiene is a measurement and improvement tool. Your facility's hand hygiene policy and infection prevention protocols are still what govern your practice. The system supports those protocols by giving everyone a clearer picture of what's happening.
Q: Will my supervisor see if I missed a wash-in? A: Your administrator can see your individual data in the Hand Hygiene web app, but the system is designed for program-level review and coaching, not individual discipline. Use the Kio Nurse Assistant app to see your own data privately.
Q: What if I forget my badge one shift? A: Your visits won't be counted for that shift. Let your administrator know if it's happening often so the team can help solve the underlying problem.
Q: What if I sanitize before stepping into the corridor outside the room? A: That can still count. The system credits dispense events that happen within a configured time window before entering and after leaving the room.
Q: Can the badge listen to my conversations? A: No. The badge is a Bluetooth device that sends a small position signal. It doesn't have a microphone or camera and doesn't record audio or video.
Quick start for your badge model
For how to wear your badge, with photos of your model and a downloadable PDF, see the quick start for the badge you were given: