institution-based assessment of health care worker on handwashing knowledge and behavior in a tertiary care hospital central India

Abstract

Patients, governments, and regulatory agencies are increasingly concerned about infections associated with health care. This is not only due to the severity of the problem in terms of associated morbidity, mortality, and treatment costs, but also because it is becoming increasingly apparent that the majority of these are preventable. The medical community is witnessing unprecedented advances in both the understanding of the pathophysiology of infectious diseases and the global spread of multidrug-resistant infections in health care facilities. These factors, coupled with the scarcity of new antimicrobials, have necessitated a reevaluation of the role of fundamental infection prevention practises in contemporary health care. There is now irrefutable evidence that strict hand hygiene practises reduce the risk of infection transmission. With "Clean Care is Safer Care" as a top priority of the WHO's global initiative on patient safety programmes, the time has come for developing countries to formulate policies for the implementation of fundamental infection prevention practises in health care settings. This study focuses on hand hygiene, one of the simplest, least expensive, and least accepted forms of infection prevention.