Reinforcing the importance of hand hygiene
29 Apr 2018Where do you land in the “tracker”?
By: Chris Clarke, MD, Medical Staff President; and Julie Koch RN, MSN, CIC, Infection Prevention Manager
Proper hand hygiene is the foundation of infection control and our patient safety culture. Our thanks to the providers who consistently perform hand hygiene in the care of our patients! National Hand Hygiene Day is May 5, so “scrub in”!
The chart to the right depicts provider compliance observed on various units/departments through February. These observations were made upon entering and/or exiting a patient room.
Our goal is to reach a 95 percent hand hygiene compliance across all units/departments, though 100 percent would be even better!
If a unit is RED at the end of the quarter (meaning it’s below 95 percent compliance), they move to “Regenerate and Improve” status, which results in a refocus on hand hygiene, and an increase in monthly audits until they’re green for 90 days.
If a unit is in Sustain and Operate (i.e., 95 percent compliance or better) they are achieving our current target, so we perform fewer audits each quarter.
Observations are made of anyone on the unit – providers, therapists, nurses, chaplains, volunteers, etc. Thank you for doing your part to keep our patients safe and free from infection.
For more information on World Hand Hygiene Day, prevention of sepsis in health care and hand hygiene in health care settings, please visit the WHO and CDC web pages below:
http://www.who.int/infection-prevention/campaigns/clean-hands/5may2018/en/