When every ward reports 100%, nobody believes the number.
Semmel makes hand hygiene the one number you never have to defend: observed with rigour, owned by every department, and connected to your infection rates.
88%
compliance, WHO 5 Moments
412 observations
96% of sample target
Day
92%
Evening
88%
Night
84%
- ✓Geo-fenced to the ward
- ✓Time-stamped
- ✓Balanced across shifts
- ✓Audits spread through the month
the problem
The credibility problem.
Rates above 90%, even 100%, rarely survive direct observation, so they raise doubts instead of confidence. The problem isn't the auditors: most audit systems can't prove an observation really happened.
| Ward 2 | 100% | no proof |
| Ward 3 | 100% | no proof |
| Ward 5 | 99% | no proof |
| ICU | 100% | no proof |
| HDU | 100% | no proof |
Who observed? When? Where? No one can say.
Not all compliance data is equal.
| Typical hand hygiene audits | Semmel | |
|---|---|---|
| How observations are logged | On paper or in an app, anywhere, sometimes after the fact | On the ward, time-stamped, and geo-fenced so they can't be logged off-site or later |
| Who gets observed | Whoever is convenient, often the same "easy" units | Balanced across units, shifts and professions by smart sampling |
| Proof it happened | The auditor's word | An audit trail of who observed, when and where |
| Who checks the rigour | Infection control, if they have time | Every head of department, through an audit-visit timeline on their monthly report |
the answer
Credible hand hygiene takes four things.
Leadership
Auditors are the first line of defence, and leadership should see it. A quarterly leadership summary shows the programme's coverage and credits the auditors behind it.
Safety culture
Observations are named, so improvement becomes a partnership with each staff member. Auditors are accountable too: each department's monthly report opens with a timeline of audit visits. Named for partnership, never punishment, with access controls on who sees what.
Infrastructure
Guardrails that prove rigour to leadership and surveyors: geo-fencing, timestamps, balanced sampling and validation audits.
Impact
Hand hygiene is measured for compliance, rarely for what it prevents. Because SafetyOS holds hand hygiene and infection surveillance together, you can see how compliance moves alongside your infection rates.
Impact you can see
In SingHealth's published audit programme, higher hand hygiene compliance went alongside lower catheter-associated urinary tract infection rates in one intensive care unit (Journal of Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality, 2022).
how it works
On the ward. Every week. Every month.
Nurse · patient zone · 10:42
Reason: hand rub empty at bedside
On the ward
Auditors observe against WHO's 5 Moments, with your hospital's variants: gloves, isolation, bare below the elbows, hand rub availability. Entry is fast and works offline. Every observation is time-stamped and geo-fenced, and the reason for any missed moment is recorded on the spot.
What's going well this week
Champions
Nurse Aisyah · Dr Tan · HCA Ravi
Most improved moment
After touching patient surroundings, up 9 points
Every week
Each department gets a short report for its stand-up: what's going well, and who's doing well. It celebrates champions rather than discussing who missed, because recognition spreads good practice faster than blame.
Ward A
Spread across the month
Ward B
All on the last two days
Every month and quarter
Heads of department receive their monthly report automatically, opening with the audit-visit timeline. Leadership receives a quarterly summary. Infection control sees everything, by unit, profession and staff member, with measures showing whether the data is solid enough to act on.
by role
What it gives each of you
Infection control lead
Compliance figures you can defend to the board and surveyors, without checking every audit yourself.
Heads of department
A weekly stand-up report and a monthly report that shows when audits happened, so you can back your auditors and your team.
Auditors
Fast, offline entry on the ward, and recognition from leadership for work that protects every patient.
Frontline staff
Fair, balanced observation, reasons for missed moments recorded, and champions celebrated.
Leadership
A quarterly summary you can trust, and a view of how hand hygiene relates to infection rates.
Quality and accreditation
Survey-ready evidence aligned to WHO, CDC and accreditation standards, on demand.
IHH Healthcare · 24 hospitals · 4 countries · since 2020
Hand hygiene across IHH hospitals in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Hong Kong, reported up to group level.
SingHealth · 11 institutions · on SafetyOS since 2020
Cross-institution and internal hand hygiene audits across Singapore's largest healthcare cluster, with results reported instantly. Recently renewed for another five years.
details
The details, when you want them.
Measurement +
WHO 5 Moments templates with local variants. Smart sampling across units, shifts and professions. Bias controls: observer rotation, cross-department and validation audits, blinded mode, inter-rater calibration, denominator rules. Geo-fencing. Live coverage meters against weekly sample targets.
Improvement +
Weekly stand-up reports that celebrate champions. Reasons for missed moments captured at the point of audit. Patterns of repeated misses visible to infection control. Reminders that spread audits fairly.
On the ward +
Mobile and offline-ready, with fast, tap-based entry and a multilingual interface. Policy changes pushed to observers in one click. Set up by unit, profession or hospital, without IT.
Reports +
Monthly department reports opening with the audit-visit timeline, emailed automatically. A quarterly leadership summary. Dashboards by unit, profession and staff member, heatmaps by time and place, and audit quality measures. One-click Excel and PowerPoint exports.
Governance +
Role-based access. Audit trails of who observed, edited and reviewed, with time and location. Survey-ready evidence packs aligned to WHO, CDC and accreditation standards. Encryption in transit and at rest.
Connected +
Native to SafetyOS, alongside infection surveillance and audits. Optional import from electronic monitoring systems. Raw data export at any time. Scales from one ward to a hospital group.
Security +
See IT and security.
resources
Take it to your team
Hand hygiene product guide
Everything on this page in depth, to share with your team.
Request the guideSample department report
What a head of department receives each month, with sample data.
Request the samplefaq
Questions infection control teams ask
Will this reduce infections, or just give us better reports? +
Hand hygiene is one of the most important defences against healthcare-associated infections, but only reliable data shows whether yours is working. Semmel makes compliance figures credible, and because SafetyOS holds infection surveillance too, you can see how compliance moves alongside your infection rates.
How does this help with board meetings and surveys? +
Every observation is time-stamped and traceable to auditor, unit and staff role, with coverage measures showing the sample is valid. Evidence packs aligned to WHO, CDC and accreditation standards are ready when you need them.
What makes Semmel different from other audit apps? +
Most apps record observations. Semmel proves they happened and keeps the sample fair: geo-fencing, timestamps, balanced sampling, bias controls, and an audit-visit timeline every head of department can see.
Why record staff names? +
So improvement becomes a partnership with each person, not a ward average. Names are for coaching and recognition, never punishment, and access controls decide who sees them.
How do we avoid over-auditing the "easy" units? +
Smart sampling schedules observations across units, shifts and professions, and reminders nudge auditors to spread their audits fairly, so your sample is valid and respected.
What if staff say the numbers are unfair? +
Observations are transparent: time, place, role and context are recorded, along with reasons for missed moments, such as hand rub not being available. The conversation moves from who's right to what needs fixing.
Will this add to our workload? +
No. Entry is faster than paper and works offline, and reports are generated and sent automatically, so infection control spends less time compiling and chasing.
Does it work with electronic monitoring systems? +
Yes. Sensor data can be imported alongside direct observation, in one view.
Can we get our data out? +
Yes. Export your raw data at any time. It's your data.
How is it priced? +
As an annual subscription. We'll give you an exact quote for your hospital.
Some answers depend on your hospital. We'll cover them with you.
Want compliance figures your board believes? That's where we start.
Book a walkthrough- →Your price, based on your hospital
- →Setting up your hand hygiene policy and WHO 5 Moments variants
- →Sampling targets for your units and professions
- →Rolling out across wards and auditors
- →Connecting hand hygiene to your infection surveillance
- →Importing electronic monitoring data, if you use it
- →A reference call with a hospital already using it