from Sickbert-Bennett EE, DiBiase LM, Willis TM, Wolak ES, Weber DJ, Rutala WA 2016
published in Emerg Infect Dis 2016; 22(9): 1628–1630
DOI 10.3201/eid2209.151440

Reduction of Healthcare-Associated Infections by Exceeding High Compliance with Hand Hygiene Practices.

Improving hand hygiene compliance by 10% (from a base level of >80%) reduces HAIs in a facility with 853 beds by an estimated 197 cases.

In this study the influence of hand hygiene compliance on healthcare-associated infections was investigated, when an already high level of compliance (>80%) was increased even further to >95%. The program to increase hand hygiene compliance (Clean In, Clean Out) was focused on cleaning hands upon entering and leaving patient rooms. An improvement of hand hygiene compliance by 10% led to a significant hospital wide reduction of healthcare-associated infections by 6%. For a facility with 853 beds this means an estimated 197 fewer infections, 22 fewer deaths, and savings of about US$ 5 mio.

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