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Economic aspects of hand hygiene

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, April 9, 2004

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At a hospital in Washington, DC, new, hospital-acquired cases of Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus (MRSA) infection dipped 22%, and cases of Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE) decreased by 40% after installation of 500 dispensers of alcohol-based hand foam. The dispensers were placed in every inpatient room, in every outpatient room, and in surgical and other rooms. The product costs about $200 a month; the company placed the dispensers for free. So over the course of the study, the hospital spent about $2,400. Just preventing one infection could cover that cost. Prior to 2000, when the new dispensers were installed, the hospital averaged about 78 new cases of MRSA a year. Since the dispensers have been available, that number has fallen to 60 cases a year. For VRE, the hospital used to see about 40 cases a year, yet since the new program began, that dropped to 24 cases a year.

Editor's note: The above case study is from the new online course "Nursing CE Series: Improving hand hygiene compliance-a guide for nurse managers." For more information on this and other Nursing courses, go to www.hcprofessor.com. and click on Nursing CE Series. HCPro, Inc., is accredited as a provider of continuing education in nursing by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

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