scholarly journals Impact of an automated hand hygiene monitoring system and additional promotional activities on hand hygiene performance rates and healthcare-associated infections

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 741-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Boyce ◽  
Jennifer A. Laughman ◽  
Michael H. Ader ◽  
Pamela T. Wagner ◽  
Albert E. Parker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hand Hygiene ◽  
Monitoring System ◽  
Hand Hygiene Compliance ◽  
Healthcare Personnel ◽  
Incidence Density ◽  
Healthcare Associated Infections ◽  
Improve Hand Hygiene ◽  
Hygiene Compliance ◽  
Healthcare Associated ◽  
The Impact

AbstractObjective:Determine the impact of an automated hand hygiene monitoring system (AHHMS) plus complementary strategies on hand hygiene performance rates and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).Design:Retrospective, nonrandomized, observational, quasi-experimental study.Setting:Single, 93-bed nonprofit hospital.Methods:Hand hygiene compliance rates were estimated using direct observations. An AHHMS, installed on 4 nursing units in a sequential manner, determined hand hygiene performance rates, expressed as the number of hand hygiene events performed upon entering and exiting patient rooms divided by the number of room entries and exits. Additional strategies implemented to improve hand hygiene included goal setting, hospital leadership support, feeding AHHMS data back to healthcare personnel, and use of Toyota Kata performance improvement methods. HAIs were defined using National Healthcare Safety Network criteria.Results:Hand hygiene compliance rates generated by direct observation were substantially higher than performance rates generated by the AHHMS. Installation of the AHHMS without supplementary activities did not yield sustained improvement in hand hygiene performance rates. Implementing several supplementary strategies resulted in a statistically significant 85% increase in hand hygiene performance rates (P < .0001). The incidence density of non–Clostridioies difficile HAIs decreased by 56% (P = .0841), while C. difficile infections increased by 60% (P = .0533) driven by 2 of the 4 study units.Conclusion:Implementation of an AHHMS, when combined with several supplementary strategies as part of a multimodal program, resulted in significantly improved hand hygiene performance rates. Reductions in non–C. difficile HAIs occurred but were not statistically significant.

scholarly journals Reduction in Intraoperative Bacterial Contamination of Peripheral Intravenous Tubing Through the Use of a Novel Device

2009 ◽  
Vol 110 (5) ◽  
pp. 978-985 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew D. Koff ◽  
Randy W. Loftus ◽  
Corey C. Burchman ◽  
Joseph D. Schwartzman ◽  
Megan E. Read ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Confidence Interval ◽  
Hand Hygiene ◽  
Odds Ratio ◽  
Hand Hygiene Compliance ◽  
Group Versus ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Healthcare Associated Infections ◽  
Intravenous Tubing ◽  
Hygiene Compliance ◽  
Healthcare Associated

Background Hand hygiene is a vital intervention to reduce health-care associated infections, but compliance remains low. The authors hypothesized that improvements in intraoperative hand hygiene compliance would reduce transmission of bacteria to surgical patients and reduce the incidence of postsurgical healthcare-associated infections. Methods The authors performed a controlled before-and-after study over 2 consecutive months. One hundred fourteen operative cases were enrolled. Two predesignated sites on the anesthesia machine were selected, decontaminated, and cultured via aseptic technique. These sites and the peripheral intravenous stopcock were cultured again after completion of the surgery. The treatment phase used a novel personal hand-decontamination device capable of recording hand-decontamination events. Results There were no significant differences in patient location, age, or case duration and procedure type between groups. Use of the Sprixx GJ device (Harbor Medical Inc., Santa Barbara, CA) increased hourly hand decontamination events by 27-fold as compared with baseline rates (P &lt; 0.002; 95% confidence interval, 3.3-13.4). Use of the device was associated with a reduction in contamination in the anesthesia work area and peripheral intravenous tubing. Intravenous tubing contamination was identified in 32.8% of cases in the control group versus 7.5% in the treatment group (odds ratio, 0.17; 95% confidence interval, 0.06-0.51; P &lt; 0.01). Healthcare-associated infections rates were reduced in the device group (3.8%) as compared with the control group (17.2%) (odds ratio, 0.19; 95% confidence interval, 0.00-0.81; P = 0.02). Conclusions Improved hand hygiene compliance through the use of a novel hand sanitation strategy reduces the risk of intraoperative bacterial transmission. The intervention was associated with a reduction in healthcare-associated infections.

scholarly journals Cleaning Staff’s Attitudes about Hand Hygiene in a Metropolitan Hospital in Australia: A Qualitative Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1067 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marguerite Sendall ◽  
Laura McCosker ◽  
Kate Halton
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Hand Hygiene ◽  
Healthcare Associated Infections ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Improve Hand Hygiene ◽  
Hygiene Practices ◽  
Hygiene Compliance ◽  
Cleaning Staff ◽  
Healthcare Associated ◽  
Hospital Cleaning

Background: In 2009, the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI) was implemented in hospitals across Australia with the aim of improving hand hygiene practices and reducing healthcare-associated infections. Audits conducted post-implementation showed the lowest rates of compliance with hand hygiene practices are among operational staff including hospital cleaners. There is limited information about hand hygiene issues in hospital cleaners to inform development of evidence-based interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance in this group. Aim: This qualitative study was undertaken to explore the attitudes of hospital cleaning staff regarding hand hygiene and the National Hand Hygiene Initiative. Methodology: Focus groups were conducted with 12 cleaning staff at a large Australian hospital implementing the National Hand Hygiene Initiative. Findings: Hospital cleaners recognise the importance of hand hygiene in preventing healthcare-associated infections. Cleaners cite peer support, leadership, and the recognition and reward of those excelling in hand hygiene as strong motivators. Barriers to optimal hand hygiene practice include the presence of multiple conflicting guidelines, hand hygiene “overload” and a lack of contextualised education programs. This exploratory qualitative study reveals three themes about attitudes of hospital cleaning staff towards hand hygiene. These themes are: (1) “The culture of hand hygiene: It’s drummed into us”; (2) “Reminders and promotion for hand hygiene: We just need a big ‘Please wash your hands’ sign”; and (3) “The personal value of hand hygiene: Like he said, it’s second nature to us”. Conclusion: Hand-hygiene messages and training need to be more consistent and contextualised to achieve improvements in hand hygiene practices in hospital cleaning staff in Australia.

Usability of Hand Hygiene Observation Apps

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 275-278
Author(s):  
Amanda Sivek ◽  
Erin Sparnon ◽  
Patrice D Tremoulet
Keyword(s):  
Antibiotic Resistance ◽  
Hand Hygiene ◽  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Clinical Training ◽  
Hand Hygiene Compliance ◽  
Healthcare Associated Infections ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Hygiene Compliance ◽  
Healthcare Associated ◽  
The U.S

Effective hand hygiene among clinicians decreases the incidence of healthcare-associated infections and helps slow the rate of antibiotic resistance, but hand hygiene compliance (HHC) rates among clinicians is often low. Facility-wide HHC monitoring is required by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In general, HHC monitoring is important to identify facility care areas, units or departments that have low HHC rates so that targeted interventions can be implemented. Recently several hand hygiene observation apps (HHOA), which enable observers to use mobile devices to record HHC data, have become available. The overall goal of our effort was to evaluate how helpful five different HHOAs were in supporting users in collecting and aggregating HHC data. Overall our participants, which included nine individuals with clinical training, and eight biomedical engineers found that all five HHOAs were fairly hard to use given that they have a relatively simple and straightforward function. There was an interesting interaction, however, with the biomedical engineers rating highest the HHOAs that the clinically-trained users rated lowest.

Behavioural science and design thinking: re-framing the hospital medication chart to improve hand hygiene compliance in nurses

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Charles Smith
Keyword(s):  
Hand Hygiene ◽  
Hand Hygiene Compliance ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
System Level ◽  
Behavioural Science ◽  
Improve Hand Hygiene ◽  
Human Cost ◽  
Hygiene Compliance ◽  
Healthcare Associated ◽  
Medication Chart

Given the economic and human cost related to healthcare-associated infections, any intervention that results in an improvement in hospital hygiene at a system level is worthwhile. Broadly, behavioural science and design thinking may be useful approaches to encourage staff compliance with hygiene policies. It is proposed that making a seemingly minor change to the hospital medication chart—specifically, by inserting a ‘hand hygiene’ tick box—could improve nurses' hand hygiene compliance, thus increasing the safety of administering and dispensing medication.

scholarly journals 1195. Hand Hygiene Compliance of Patients’ Family Members in India: Importance of Educating the Unofficial “Fourth Category” of Healthcare Personnel

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. S429-S429
Author(s):  
Manisha Biswal ◽  
Archana Angrup ◽  
Surria Rajpoot ◽  
Rupinder Kaur ◽  
Kulbeer Kaur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hand Hygiene ◽  
Hand Hygiene Compliance ◽  
Tertiary Care ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Hospital Setting ◽  
Healthcare Personnel ◽  
Care Hospital ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Hygiene Compliance ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background In India,due to manpower constraints, patients’ family members are often actively involved in healthcare activities of their near and dear ones. They have significant contact with the patient at all the 5 moments for hand hygiene (HH) as listed by WHO. At our tertiary care hospital in north India, we have been monitoring HH compliance (HHC) for nearly a decade. In this study, we analyzed the impact of decade long awareness campaigns to improve HH compliance in our patients’ attendants. Methods Trained infection control nurses directly observed the compliance to hand hygiene at each of the five moments for patients’ attendants over different areas of the hospital over a period of 5 years (January 2014–December 2018). Compliance was calculated as percentage of events over total opportunities and compared. Results 7290 opportunities were observed with an overall compliance of 46.3%. The overall HHC in patient attendants has increased from 35.5% in 2014 to 48.2% in 2018 (P < 0.0001). Compliance at WHO moment 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 was 51.2%, 47.8%, 67.8%, 48.9% and 24.4% respectively. Among family members, mothers of newborn babies had a much higher HHC (77%) than others (44.7%) (P < 0.0001). Also, the compliance was higher in medical vs. surgical wards and pediatric wards vs. adult wards (P < 0.0001 in both). Conclusion This is the first study about family members’ HHC in a hospital setting in a low and middle-income country. Once trained, family members exhibit fairly good hand hygiene compliance while involved in healthcare activities of their patients. Mothers of newborn babies exhibit exemplary hand hygiene compliance while caring for their babies in our hospital. It is worthwhile empowering and educating patient attendants about the importance and process of hand hygiene as it is likely to result in immense benefit for patients. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.

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