Since the early 2000’s, lack of handwashing has been targeted as a main cause of spreading infections. Over the years, Joint Commission has required organizations to develop and implement hand hygiene programs. As of January 1, 2018,the Joint Commissionhas decided to take another step to ensure hand hygiene is top of mind while providing direct patient care. Surveyors will now cite a deficiency to a hospital if they see any individual failing to perform hand hygiene.
With this in mind, it may be time to review your current guidelines and look for ways to continually improve. Here are a few steps a facility can take to increase its hand hygiene compliance:
- Emphasize and discuss the importance of hand washing before putting gloves on and after taking gloves off.Researchindicates that re-educating staff on proper glove use, including when it is appropriate to use gloves, may increase compliance.
- Show the cost savings of proper hand hygiene.A study published in the Journal of Hospital Infectionreported that by increasing the compliance from a baseline 10 percent to 20 percent can be cost-effective solely through reduced MRSA bloodstream infections.
- 创造一种氛围,当临床医生看到手动卫生方案中的破坏时,他们感到有能力发言。这可能很困难,尤其是当专业层次结构发挥作用时。确保对话是开放的,并且所有工作人员都知道不合规的风险。
- Perform random audits of hand hygiene and hold all staff accountable. Consider connecting infection compliance with annual staff evaluations. Develop a tiered penalty system for repeat offenders.
- Familiarize yourself with new technology. Researchers have created guided sensors that alert clinicians to perform hand hygiene before engaging with the patient.最近的研究showed these continuous notifications increased compliance to 100%. It also reported that the annual cost of this machine was “an estimated 46 percent lower than an observational hand hygiene program.”
Proper hand hygiene performance has been reported to be at53.8 percent。作为你的一部分new year resolutions, look at your facility’s protocols and strive to increase this statistic. Implementing some of the above ideas can be a relatively simple way to prevent the spread of hospital acquired infections – helping your patients and your hospital system!
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