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Hand hygiene compliance rates steadily increased with new campaign
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BALTIMORE — A hand hygiene campaign that implemented new signage, a variety of in-services and new automated dispensers placed at the entry of hospital rooms significantly increased hand hygiene compliance rates among health care workers at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, Conn.
During the first month of the campaign, compliance rates increased from 7.7% to 37.4%, and steadily increased to 77% by the end of the year. Compliance rates increased further during the following 3 years, maintaining between 85% and 89% compliance.
“Health care workers (HCWs) were focused on cleaning their hands after caring for the patient, yet hand hygiene before patient care and glove-use was lacking,” the researchers wrote in the abstract. “We reached a plateau that would not be breached, and by additional monitoring, determined that some of our staff were wearing gloves instead of performing hand hygiene.”
Hand hygiene compliance rates at the hospital were significantly less than the national average of 45%. For this reason, Renee M. Savage, RN, BSN, CIC, and colleagues assembled a multidisciplinary team assigned to monitor patient care units for 1 month. The researchers found that HCWs were practicing hand hygiene, but only after caring for patients.
The team instituted a hand hygiene campaign and placed a pamphlet in the patient information booklet, prompting the patient to “Go Ahead and Ask” whether the HCW cleaned his hands. Signs were also placed in patient rooms and data were posted monthly by senior leadership to promote hand hygiene compliance.
Results indicated that the campaign significantly increased compliance rates and decreased Clostridium difficile, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus infections.
“We saw a decrease in infections as people realized that they could actually contaminate their gloves by touching them with their hands,” Savage said during a presentation here. “Their mindset was: ‘I just cleaned my hands coming out of that room’ — our mindset was: ‘What have you touched between cleaning them and going into the next room?’ HCWs learned that gloves were not a replacement for hand hygiene.” – by Ashley DeNyse
For more information:
- Savage R. #14-183. Presented at: the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology’s (APIC) 38th Annual Educational Conference and International Meeting; June 27-29, 2011; Baltimore.
Disclosure: Savage reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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