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Study claims half of nation’s healthcare workers practice poor hand hygiene

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, November 12, 2004

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A recent study found that approximately 50% of the nation's healthcare professionals put their patients at risk for infection by not complying with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's hand hygiene guidelines, according to the Wall Street Journal. The main culprits for noncompliance are those working in the emergency, surgery, intensive care, and anesthesia departments--the departments where hand hygiene compliance is most necessary, reported the Journal. The study, performed by the PA-based nonprofit research agency, ECRI, claimed that the current hand hygiene compliance rate is "far below" the 80% compliance rate necessary to control infection and safeguard patients. Among the most common noncompliance issues cited in the study:

• failure to wet hands before applying soap
  
• failure to use paper towels when turning off faucets
  
• failure to thoroughly rub hands together until dry (when using alcohol-based hand rubs)

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations hopes to spread the word about the importance of infection control (IC) through proper hand hygiene in its new IC standards, scheduled for release in January 2005. Click here http://www.cdc.gov/handhygiene/ to review the 2002 guidelines for hand hygiene in healthcare settings and get educational materials to promote proper hand hygiene in your facility.

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