July 15, 2006
There has been a big push from the Infection Control Department at YKHC to increase hand hygiene compliance. But why is this important? What is hand hygiene? How is it done? How are we monitoring it at YKHC?
For health care workers, hand hygiene is considered the single most important way to prevent the spread of infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gives us the guidelines to be followed. You can find these guidelines at www.cdc.gov. They report that infectious outbreaks have been stopped by improved hand hygiene. They also report that hand hygiene reduces overall infection rates.
Hand hygiene is defined as hand washing for at least 15 seconds or use of an alcohol-based hand rub at appropriate times. Some of these times include before and after seeing patients, after glove use, when hands are visibly soiled, after contact with items (such as a bedrail or IV pump) in a patient's environment, after eating, and after using the bathroom.
When washing hands, turn on water to wet hands, apply soap, and rub briskly. Be sure to wash in between fingers and underneath nails as well. After rinsing hands, dry them with a paper towel then turn off the water using a paper towel (in the hospital, many sinks use foot pedals to turn water on and off).
When using an alcohol rub, use the amount recommended on the bottle, apply to the palm of one hand, then cover all surfaces of hands and fingers until the hands are dry.
Some village clinics may not have running water. Here, anti-microbial hand wipes (towelettes) may be used in place of hand washing. These are not as effective as washing hands or using an alcohol-based rub so use of the alcohol-based rub is important too.
For the past few months, the Infection Control Department has been monitoring hand hygiene on a weekly basis (prior to this it was monthly). Department managers and peers have been asked to monitor it too. In June, our hand hygiene compliance rate was 85 percent. Our goal is to be 100 percent compliant.
If you are a patient being seen anywhere at YKHC, we encourage you to ask your health care worker if they washed their hands before seeing you.