A Little More Conversation, a Lot More Prevention

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted just how critical infection prevention is. Each year, close to 3.5 million people across Europe fall ill with an infection acquired in a hospital or care facility. Yet, one in three of these hospital-acquired infections (HAI) are preventable. This is where Mission:InfectionPrevention comes in. Lead by the Risk Prevention and Disinfection business divisions, it is HARTMANN’s holistic approach to eliminating the burden of HAIs.

Find out why infection prevention is elementary and how our 5-phase plan can help to increase patient health.

The initiative Mission: Infection Prevention builds on the company‘s longstanding expertise in infection management, combining Risk Prevention and Disinfection‘s products and comprehensive knowledge with close collaboration with HARTMANN‘s many partners in industry and healthcare institutions.
At the same time, new working approaches are being developed within the Mission: Prevention framework. These include digital solutions such as apps to improve hygiene compliance and predictive software for early diagnosis of infections.
Dr. Gian Carlo Sciuchetti highlights that it is essential that all activities support customers in their daily work. This will allow them to concentrate on the really important things such as dedicating more time to caring for each patient.

Mission: Infection Prevention adopts a comprehensive approach that focuses on infection prevention in medical and nursing facilities but also aims to reduce the burden HAIs place on wider society. "We have set ourselves a clear goal”, says Christian Sievert.

With its product offer in both Risk Prevention and Disinfection, HARTMANN has a unique opportunity to target HAIs. However, to achieve a leadership position the objective is to move beyond being seen as a seller of products. Sciuchetti explains that HARTMANN is moving away from being a products manufacturer, combining products with other tools and measures to become a provider of holistic solutions.

Education also plays a vital role in Mission: Infection Prevention. The current coronavirus crisis clearly shows how critical it is for people globally to understand how to prevent infection spread. With this initiative HARTMANN is going to continue and broaden the conversation it is already having in the public arena about the risks of infection and the potential financial and social consequences.
HARTMANN will also share its extensive expertise at trade shows and congresses, in round table discussions and keynote speeches, in traditional and social media and via collaborations with patients associations, academia and non-profit organizations.

Ultimately, the success of Mission: Infection Prevention will be down to the contribution of every HARTMANN employee. The local sales and marketing teams have a crucial role in educating their customers and helping to eliminate HAIs by selling solutions rather than bundling products. But everyone in the organization has a part to play, says Sievert. "We all need to educate ourselves in Mission: Infection Prevention and the wider topic in general. Each of us can help to spread the message in conversations and via social media about how to prevent the spread of infection and why it is vitally important.“

All HARTMANN employees should be proud of the company’s long heritage in infection prevention, adds Gian Carlo Sciuchetti. In the current crisis, we can see all around us what an important difference our work makes. More than ever before, the global coronavirus pandemic has underlined the importance of our mission: infection prevention saves lives.