MCN Healthcare: Policy Management and Compliance Tools

The Archives of Internal Medicine recently published a study done in Switzerland about physicians' and nurses' perceptions of patient reminders to perform hand hygiene and the results are fascinating:

• Almost three quarters of caregivers surveyed acknowledged that patient reminders to perform hand hygiene could reduce infections
• 29 percent of those surveyed said they did not support patient reminders to perform hand hygiene
• 27 percent of those surveyed said it was not a "patient's place" to remind caregivers to perform hand hygiene
• 37 percent of those surveyed said they would refuse to wear a badge soliciting questions about performing hand hygiene

According to the study, while hand hygiene is acknowledged to be one of the most important measures in reducing health care associated infections, health care worker compliance with hand hygiene remains low.    The survey respondents cited reasons such as time constraints and professional embarrassment for not wanting to be asked about hand hygiene by patients.   While this study was small and had some limitations the results raise interesting questions for infection control practitioners as they try to implement creative and effective hand hygiene programs. 

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