Strategies to improve hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers in adult intensive care units: a mini systematic review

Handwashing in healthcare today: Why haven’t we gotten better?

“…Surprising, the hands that offer the much-needed healthcare services to patients are the ones that are often to blame for the spend of healthcare-associated infections [2,3,5,8]. As the most common vehicle for the transmission of HCAIs, the healthcare professional is the one who can prevent the spread of the resistance organisms leading to HCAIs and thus, decrease the cost of healthcare [8,9]. Of course, major organizations including the CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) continue to launch patient safety campaigns in an attempt to improve hand hygiene compliance among healthcare professionals [10].…”

“…Of course, major organizations including the CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) continue to launch patient safety campaigns in an attempt to improve hand hygiene compliance among healthcare professionals [10]. The indings of several studies have determined that it is a combination of many factors that is leading to the lack of a 100% compliance in hand-hygiene among healthcare professionals [8].…”

“…However, the issue with a continued low number that is still (on average) around the 40% mark physicians and other health care providers in proper hand hygiene protocols nationwide is a systems issue. There are several problems that lead to these low numbers and solutions to could improve them [8,10].…”

“…The solution is 'show them the numbers.' If the compliance team use some form of objective monitoring system, this has proven to offer improve compliance to hand hygiene guidelines [8,10].…”

Washing our hands of the problem

“…Once compliance has been accurately measured, work can then be undertaken to improve it, the optimal approach to this remains elusive [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. The importance of customizing messaging and interventions: "One size does not fit all" was highlighted in this special edition last year [29] and has been embraced by Salmon et al in the context of the effect of messaging on different healthcare professions [30].…”