Effects of the Australian National Hand Hygiene Initiative after 8 years on infection control practice, health-care worker education and clinical outcomes: a longitudinal study
Higher hand hygiene-compliance standards will lead to lower HAI rates
The aim of this study was to analyze the effectiveness and outcomes of the national-wide Australian National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI) in a longitudinal study (8 years). The implementation of the NHHI in Australian hospitals has been associated with significant sustained improvement in hand hygiene compliance and a decline in the incidence of HA-SAB. A 10 % increase in HHC is associated with 15 % decrease in bloodstream infections.