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Belgium's Ontex comes out with smart incontinence care solution

29 Jun '21

3 min read

Pic: Ontex

Ontex, a Belgium-based international personal hygiene group, has developed a smart continence management service - Orizon - for care homes and hospitals. Orizon, alerts caregivers via an app when a resident’s smart incontinence protection gets close to saturation. The service increases comfort for residents and staff, and increases the dignity of residents.

The Orizon solution contains a printed sensor, a transmitter clipped onto the diaper, as well as a mobile and web application. This combination accurately determines the saturation level of the diaper and alerts caregivers when it is possibly necessary to change the diaper.

Ontex is going to run pilot projects of Orizon in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the UK, with a commercial launch across Europe later this year. During a first field study at the start of Orizon’s ongoing validation process, Orizon was tested at care home De Dennen in Malle, Belgium. Hilde D’hont, care home quality director, said: “Orizon improved the daily lives of our residents suffering from incontinence, as well as that of our caregivers. Diapers are now only changed and checked when needed, so residents suffering from incontinence get more time for a chat with staff and are not unnecessarily disturbed during the night. We saw a 40 per cent reduction of leakages during the day and more than 50 per cent at night, 3 out of 4 fewer bed linen changes, and an optimal use of absorbents. This has a positive impact on people’s comfort and on the environmental footprint of our care home.”

Hospitals and elderly care facilities face tremendous time and budget pressure to take care of residents. Incontinence is one of the most prevalent conditions in age care facilities, and one of the most important components of the cost for caring in institutions. Around 80 per cent of care home residents have some form of incontinence, as shown in Ontex order data from care homes.

“Caregivers are under enormous strain, and we want to help them by reducing the time they spend on continence management,” said Annick De Poorter, executive vice president R and D and Sustainability, Ontex. “Our field study has shown that nurses in care homes spend almost half of their time on incontinence-related tasks. Orizon will improve the dignity of residents, reducing diaper checks especially at night, and optimise the time dedicated to continence care reducing the consequences of diaper leakages.”

Incontinence is a very common condition, especially with elderly people in hospitals and care homes. According to research done by the World Health Organisation, between 10 and 36 per cent of people over the age of 60 are affected by incontinence and use incontinence products. Even if incontinence is most common among the elderly, it affects all ages of the population.

Unlike most of Ontex’s existing incontinence brands and services, Orizon is based on a monthly fee. By launching Orizon, Ontex aims to optimise the total continence management cost by reducing waste, laundry cost and staff time spent on continence care. Incontinence care is optimised thanks to a more tailored, individual incontinence care for residents. This results in an optimal use of the absorbent capacity, reducing total consumption, and more time for staff to spend on other care tasks or quality time.

Orizon will be brought to the market by Ontex’s two leading incontinence brands, Serenity and iD, capitalising on existing brand awareness and reputation in European hospitals and care homes.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SV)

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