hhreports.com - Hand Hygiene Literature Updates

An extensive review of the literature on hand hygiene measurement resulting in 662 articles of which only 34 described the method in detail. Excellent source for ICPs trying to decide on a compliance program.

www.hhreports.com/downloads/PSLUSeptemberstandard.pdf

The patient safety update generated by WHO provides support for patient empowerment / involvement.

Healthcare-Associated Infections - Strengthening the Patients' Health, Report (2006) of Chief Medical Office for England and the United Kingdom (Sir Liam Donaldson).

Excellent perspective on patients' role. See web site:

www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/AnnualReports/DH_076817

Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Annual; Meeting, Baltimore April 2007, oral abstract McGuckin M,Wagner C ,Shubin A, Waterman R, Statewide Partnership and CEO Challenge to increase and Sustain Hand Hygiene Compliance.

The authors reported on the implementation of a statewide intervention Partners in Your Care and measurement program as well as a challenge by CEO's for the best hand hygiene compliance rate. They reported a 24% increase in compliance for non-ICU and 74% increase for ICU. Their model addresses the Theory of Planned Behavior in which expectations of important people results in social pressure to please.

Amer J Inf Control, Dec 2006;Vol 34(10):673-675
McGuckin M, Shubin A, McBride P, Lane S, Strauss K, Butler D, Pitman A. The effect of random voice hand hygiene messages delivered by medical, nursing, and infection control staff on hand hygiene compliance in intensive care.

http://www.ajicjournal.org/article/PIIS0196655306002082/abstract

AJMQ, Supplement to Vol 21, No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006
The Nov/Dec issue of AJMQ contained a supplement on HAIs, “Meeting the Challenge”. The data used in each of the articles is the data from PHC4 (Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council). As you may know, Pennsylvania in July 2005 became the first state to publicly report statistical data on HAIs. HTTP://www.phc4.org

This supplement I am sure will be met with the same criticism, doubt and debate as the PHC4 data has been over the past (2) years. However, we need to move forward and maybe this is an early wake-up call to get back to the basics of patient care practices.

Journal of Hospital Infection (2006)62,304-310.
McArdle, F.I. et al, How much time is needed for hand hygiene in intensive care? A prospective trained observer study of rates of contact between healthcare workers and intensive care patients.

In summary, these authors bring further support to our rationale of using 144 HH/bed day as 100% compliance for ICU. They found the number of direct contact to be 159 per day (95% CI). Excellent well designed article. Link. (journal subscription required)

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McGuckin Methods International, P. O. Box 425, Ardmore, PA 19003

E-mail: mcguckin@hhreports.com