HEALTHCARE HYGIENE FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT
Healthy hand hygiene habits are vital in the fight against the spread of infections in healthcare settings. However, in order to have the most positive impact on behaviour, products and systems need to be both effective and pleasant to use, as Mike Sullivan, Managing Director of GOJO Industries-Europe, explains.
Viruses thrive in closed environments where people come into constant contact with each other – and healthcare facilities, such as hospitals and GP surgeries, are a haven for them. With a constant flow of patients, visitors and staff; these are places where healthy personal hygiene practices are a vital weapon in the fight against the spread of germs.
Hospitals are well aware of the benefits of promoting good hand hygiene practices to staff and visitors. However, education and awareness- building campaigns can only be truly effective if healthcare establishments are equipped with the most effective and easy-to-use hand hygiene products. By making such products conveniently accessible to use at all the ‘critical points’, hospitals can demonstrate their commitment to safeguarding the personal health and well-being of their patients, staff, and members of the public.
Healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) increase healthcare costs and time, so improving hand hygiene performance is one way to both lower costs and improve patient safety. Headlines about norovirus, influenza and
E.coli outbreaks have become an annual occurrence in the media and the effects of outbreaks are wide- ranging – from the personal discomfort of those who contract the virus, to the disruption to normal services such as the enforced closure of hospital wards. Ensuring that hospitals are equipped with easily accessible hand hygiene products, so that all the people visiting or working in their facilities can keep their hands clean and germ free, will act both as a preventative measure and a way to help restore normality after an outbreak has occurred.
HCAIs can be costly in both monetary and personal terms. However, healthcare environments can considerably help reduce the
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associated risks by providing good quality products, which are clinically tested to prove their effectiveness against the spread of germs, but also pleasant to use, in attractive, accessible dispensers, sited in the right locations.
EFFECTIVE AND
GENTLE ON HANDS GOJO has worked closely with acute healthcare facilities over the years to understand the barriers to hand hygiene performance and the needs of healthcare workers. Product efficacy is only part of the solution in helping improve patient outcomes. The high frequency with which many healthcare workers have to use hygienic hand rub means that it is imperative that formulations are gentle on the skin, thereby not damaging their hands.
Efficacy is, of course, an important issue, so only those companies who can prove the effectiveness of their soaps or hand rubs against germs through independent scientific testing should be considered. Similarly, formulations that have been tested and passed in accordance with key hospital norms EN 1500, EN 14476 and EN 12791, provide assurance that they are safe for use in healthcare locations. However, the best products will successfully combine efficacy with soothing, moisturising ingredients that are gentle on the skin, meaning that staff can use the products again and again, knowing that their hands will be kept in good condition.
Giving healthcare workers access to products and systems that they actually enjoy using can only help towards achieving a greater success rate of reducing infections through improved hand hygiene.
A GLOBAL COMMITMENT
TO REDUCING HCAIS GOJO is a member of POPS (Private Organisations for Patient Safety),
a collaborative scheme launched by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2012 to support its ‘Clean Care is Safer Care’ programme. This collaboration sees private companies involved in the hand hygiene sector working with the WHO to benefit patients across the globe, by sharing best practice and information in order to improve implementation of WHO recommendations, especially in the least developed countries. POPS hopes to achieve a reduction in HCAIs through improvements in hand hygiene by increasing hand hygiene education and awareness, and by improving access to commodities and products such as water, soap, towels and hygienic hand rubs
GOJO recommend using a complete hand hygiene regime for hospitals, and adherence to the WHO’s guidelines on the ‘Five Moments for Hand Hygiene’. Washing hands with liquid or foam soap and water is advised between significant events, and always when the hands are visibly soiled. It also supports the WHO’s Multimodal Hand Hygiene Improvement Strategy, which aims to improve hand hygiene compliance of staff that work with patients in healthcare settings by creating a ‘culture of safety’ through training and education, making hygienic hand rubs available at the point of care, and enhanced observation and feedback of, and from healthcare workers.
HCAIs pose a real threat to the physical welfare of patients and staff, with the added negative effect on hospital budgets that have to deal with the consequences of an outbreak, and the subsequent work needed to return to normal. However, advances in formulations and delivery systems, combined with a global commitment to improve hand hygiene for all, ensure that significant progress will continue to be made in the fight to reduce risks.
www.gojo.com
twitter.com/TomoCleaning
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