Andalusia Regional Hospital received an honorable mention in Modern Healthcare magazine’s 19th annual Spirit of Excellence Awards.

Five winners and five honorable mention honorees were notified this week and will be profiled in a future edition of the magazine. Each of the five winners will receive a cash prize of $5,000, and each of the five honorable mentions will receive a $1,500 cash prize.

ARH received the honorable mention for its clean-hands initiative. ARH reduced confirmed healthcare-associated infections by 75 percent from 2010 to 2011 after initiating a pilot program to monitor and improve hand hygiene in December 2010.

The hospital used a product from Proventix Systems, a wireless technology that records when healthcare workers enter a patient’s room, measures their behaviors related to hand hygiene, and electronically reports their rates of compliance.

The employees’ compliance efforts have equated a $42,600 cost savings and a 48.4-day decrease in incremental length of stay.