Hand Hygiene and The Bottom Line Impact to Budgets

For those that are focusing on how to manage their budgets in this time of unprecedented economic constraints, here's a simple economic and financial fact:

Proactive, and responsible hand hygiene protocols, whether within schools, healthcare venues, and/or the workplace can save tens of thousands of dollars in the course of re-evaluating budgets and spending.

How? Its real simple; it all comes down to the cost of absenteeism.

Consider what it costs when an employee is out sick for the day. A lost sale, a delayed shipment, a delay in processing an order or a receivable, a delay in training a customer service representative, a class that has to be rescheduled. When there is a one-day or an extended absence due to common illness, i.e. a bug, the flu, a cold, a stomach virus, you not only lose productivity, but temporary workers need to be brought when there is an extended absence of a full-time worker.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that many low-level illnesses can be easily avoided by steps as simple as washing hands frequently--and especially after coming into contact with any 'foreign object'--keyboards, door handles, desktops, shaking hands with someone, etc etc. A message that any healthcare professional will acknowledge. And its a message that hand sanitizer makers have promoted--"when washing with soap and water isn't convenient....."

Here's the rub-not all hand sanitizer products make sense. Alcohol-based gel products kill germs on contact-and they also kill the protective skin cells that shield against germs, bacteria and viruses. From a cost-efficiency standpoint, alcohol-based hand sanitizer formulas burn through your budget as quickly as the flames that result when you put a match to the alcohol in that bottle of gel on your desk.

On the other hand, alcohol-free, foaming applications require less "per shot" application, they provide extended persistency (meaning they continue to protect against germs long after applied), and, unlike alcohol gels--which introduce added cost when considering the damage they inflict on floors, walls,etc. NON-ALCOHOL, rinse free foaming hand sanitizers provide 2x-3x greater cost efficiency..End users consume less than half as much product over the course of a month or a year when compared to historical usage of alcohol-based gels. There are several alcohol-free, foam format brands--however they do range in price--and some manufacturers have made the mistake of pricing their product at a level that mitigates cost efficiences..Products such as Soapopular, Hy5, some HandClens products are priced comparable to alcohol-based products--which means these brands deliver the cost savings that consumers and institutional users can benefit from--and save upwards of 50% on their annual hand sanitizer purchases.