Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T03:30:00.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Measurement of Patient Hand Hygiene in Multiorgan Transplant Units Using a Novel Technology: An Observational Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2016

Jocelyn A. Srigley ,
Colin D. Furness  and
Michael Gardam
Jocelyn A. Srigley*
Affiliation:
Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Colin D. Furness
Affiliation:
Infonaut, Inc, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Michael Gardam
Affiliation:
Infection Prevention and Control, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
*
711 Concession Street, M1-Room 8, Hamilton, ON L8V 1C3, Canada ([email protected]).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objective.

Healthcare worker hand hygiene is known to prevent healthcare-associated infections, but there are few data on patient hand hygiene despite the fact that nosocomial pathogens may be acquired by patients via their own unclean hands. The purpose of this study was to measure patient hand hygiene behavior in the hospital after visiting a bathroom, before eating, and on entering and leaving their rooms

Design.

Cross-sectional study.

Setting.

Acute care teaching hospital in Canada.

Patients.

Convenience sample of 279 adult patients admitted to 3 multiorgan transplant units between July 2012 and March 2013.

Methods.

Patient use of alcohol-based hand rub and soap dispensers was measured using an ultrasound-based real-time location system during visits to bathrooms, mealtimes, kitchen visits, and on entering and leaving their rooms.

Results.

Overall, patients performed hand hygiene during 29.7% of bathroom visits, 39.1% of mealtimes, 3.3% of kitchen visits, 2.9% of room entries, and 6.7% of room exits.

Conclusions.

Patients appear to perform hand hygiene infrequently, which may contribute to transmission of pathogens from the hospital environment via indirect contact or fecal-oral routes.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2014;35(11):1336–1341

Type
Original Article
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 35 , Issue 11 , November 2014 , pp. 1336 - 1341
Copyright
© 2014 by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. World Health Organization (WHO). WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2009.Google Scholar
2. Banfield, KR, Kerr, KG. Could hospital patients’ hands constitute a missing link? J Hosp Infect 2005;61:183–188.Google Scholar
3. Randle, J, Arthur, A, Vaughan, N. Twenty-four-hour observational study of hospital hand hygiene compliance. J Hosp Infect 2010;76:252–255.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4. Mattam, K, Al-Badawi, T, King, S, Guleri, A. The missing link in the health-care associated infection acquisition cycle: an innovative patient hand-hygiene audit led by doctors at a tertiary cardiac centre in northwestern England. Clin Microbiol Infect 2012;18:809.Google Scholar
5. Haas, JP, Larson, EL. Measurement of compliance with hand hygiene. J Hosp Infect 2007;66:6–14.Google Scholar
6. Ontario Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee. Best Practices for Hand Hygiene in All Health Care Settings. Toronto: Queen’s Printer for Ontario, 2010.Google Scholar
7. Curtis, DW, Pino, EJ, Bailey, JM, et al. SMART: an integrated wireless system for monitoring unattended patients. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2008;15:44–53.Google Scholar
8. Srigley, JA, Furness, CD, Baker, GR, Gardam, M. Quantification of the Hawthorne effect in hand hygiene compliance monitoring using an electronic monitoring system: a retrospective cohort study. BMJ Qual Saf 2014. doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2014-003080 (electronically published ahead of print).Google Scholar
9. Cheng, VC, Wu, AK, Cheung, CH, et al. Outbreak of human metapneumovirus infection in psychiatric inpatients: implications for directly observed use of alcohol hand rub in prevention of nosocomial outbreaks. J Hosp Infect 2007;67:336–343.Google Scholar
10. Gagne, D, Bedard, G, Maziade, PJ. Systematic patients’ hand disinfection: impact on meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection rates in a community hospital. J Hosp Infect 2010;75:269–272.Google Scholar
11. Zimlichman, E, Henderson, D, Tamir, O, et al. Health care–associated infections: a meta-analysis of costs and financial impact on the US health care system. J Am Med Assoc 2013;173(22):2039–2046.Google Scholar
12. Boyce, JM. Measuring healthcare worker hand hygiene activity: current practices and emerging technologies. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2011;32:1016–1028.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed