Promoting and sustaining a hospital-wide, multifaceted hand hygiene program resulted in significant reduction in health care-associated infections

Background Hand hygiene is the single most important intervention to combat infections in any health care setting. However, adherence to hand hygiene practice remains low among health care workers. Objectives Our objective was to assess compliance with hand hygiene over time utilizing a multifaceted...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of infection control 2013-06, Vol.41 (6), p.482-486
Main Authors: Al-Tawfiq, Jaffar A., MD, Abed, Mahmoud S., RN, Al-Yami, Nashma, MSc, Birrer, Richard B., MD
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Compliance
Cross Infection - prevention & control
Device associated infections
Drug resistance
Epidemiology. Vaccinations
Equipment and Supplies, Hospital - microbiology
General aspects
Guideline Adherence - statistics & numerical data
Hand Hygiene
Health Promotion
Human infectious diseases. Experimental studies and models
Humans
Hygiene
Infection Control
Infection Control - methods
Infectious Disease
Infectious diseases
Intervention
Medical personnel
Medical sciences
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
Patient safety
Personnel, Hospital
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Quality improvement
Saudi Arabia
Staphylococcal Infections - prevention & control
Staphylococcus infections
Time and Motion Studies
Urinary tract diseases
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Summary:Background Hand hygiene is the single most important intervention to combat infections in any health care setting. However, adherence to hand hygiene practice remains low among health care workers. Objectives Our objective was to assess compliance with hand hygiene over time utilizing a multifaceted approach to hand hygiene. In addition, we assessed the rate of device-associated infections. Methods This is a descriptive time series study with a multitude of interventions from October 2006 to December 2011 set in a 350-bed community hospital in Saudi Arabia. We utilized a multimodal program to promote hand hygiene activities. We also calculated device-associated infection rates as outcome measures. Results Over the study, the overall hand hygiene compliance rate increased from a baseline of 38% in second quarter 2006 to 65% in 2010 and then to 85% in 2011 ( P  
ISSN:0196-6553
1527-3296
DOI:10.1016/j.ajic.2012.08.009