countries, and Europe respectively. If left unchecked, growing resistance to antibiotics could further increase the severity of HCAIs — adding even greater costs to a health service that is already feeling the pinch.
What can be done to ensure compliance from team members, and get them to
take hand hygiene seriously? HCAIs are a huge issue for healthcare facilities (especially with the growing threat of AMR), however infection prevention is an issue with readily accessible solutions. Estimates suggest that between 20 and 40% of all HCAIs can be avoided by improving the communication and application of existing hand hygiene rules and practices. Many organisations already have the answers but aren’t applying them effectively.
There are a number of ways healthcare facilities can improve compliance. Having the right hygiene products and equipment in place is an important step – not even the best hand hygiene procedures will prevent the spread of germs and bacteria if it is not quick and easy to access the right creams and sanitisers as and when they are needed.
It is crucial for hospitals to educate their staff about the importance of proper skin care in the workplace, including training in the right techniques. This is far more effective as an ongoing conversation, rather than a one-off event. Hospitals should strive to create a culture of effective hand hygiene and skin care to make their programme work.
Transparency is another key element. The Government’s plan to improve transparency on infection control by forcing hospitals to publish staff hand hygiene figures is a step in the right direction. Later this year, hand sanitiser usage will have to be monitored and reported to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), enabling it to scrutinise hand hygiene compliance and drive up standards.
How has the World Health Organisation’s ‘Five Moments of Hand Hygiene’ help raise awareness? And has it helped increase compliance?
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Adopting and driving best practice in hand hygiene, based on the WHO ‘Five Moments for Hand Hygiene’ guideline, is widely recognised as one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of infection.
Group monitoring
systems can provide hospital leaders with reliable, quantified data that tracks
overall performance.
By identifying the key moments at which it is important to engage in hand hygiene, the WHO has cleared up confusion over procedures and compliance. And this evidence-based, field-tested approach makes it as simple as possible for healthcare institutions across the world to follow the same procedures and maintain best practice.
The awareness generated by the WHO ‘Five Moments’ has been invaluable. While most organisations would have previously engaged in hand hygiene procedures for many (if not all) of the moments, they now have a clear framework that enables healthcare facilities to drive improvements in hand hygiene compliance.
What are the main benefits of group monitoring compared
to direct observation? Direct observation is an outdated, costly and ineffective method for monitoring hand hygiene compliance. The lack of accuracy alone is enough to consider abandoning it before you even begin to think of the resources it can take up.
Group monitoring is potentially a more suitable solution for 24/7 monitoring. This can be a cost-effective method and the relative reliability of the technology — hard-wired into hygiene dispensers to capture every single time a member of medical staff engages in hand hygiene — makes it a much more stable way to collect compliance data.
By combining highly accurate data on adherence with robust and validated estimates for best practice at ward or unit level, group monitoring systems can provide hospital leaders with reliable, quantified data that tracks overall performance – providing regular feedback and clearly indicating where further effort is needed to improve compliance.
Just as importantly, hospitals can implement such a system without causing any disruption to daily working practices, as the data is generated automatically and in very familiar formats to hospitals used to direct observation.
Can you tell us about DebMed? DebMed is our unique, integrated hand hygiene compliance and skin care programme designed to help healthcare facilities reach higher standards in the fight against HCAIs. To achieve this, it incorporates three dedicated elements: Essential Products, Vital Information, and Highest Standards.
Customised to each healthcare environment, DebMed can increase hand hygiene compliance and reduce HCAIs like MRSA. Central to this is our unique electronic monitoring system which offers healthcare institutions the ability to capture 100% of hand hygiene events, and accurately track compliance rates across facilities.
Supporting the effective monitoring of compliance is Essential Products, the three-step hand hygiene protocol that should be followed by healthcare staff: cleanse, sanitise and care. This revolves around staff members frequently using hand hygiene products at regular intervals recommended by the WHO ‘5 Moments’.
The DebMed programme also includes a dedicated education and training platform that enables healthcare institutions ensure the Highest Standards of behaviour are in place at all times. This encompasses a training toolbox designed to change behaviour by educating staff about best practice in how, why and when to engage in hand hygiene.
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