Hand hygiene is a key aspect of improving healthcare quality and reducing infection rates. Here are 10 most recent findings on hand hygiene.Peer pressure may be more effective than the promise of a cash bonus in improving hand hygiene compliance rates, according to a study detailed in a Harvard Business Review article.

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10 latest healthcare hand hygiene findings
By.Dr.Mahboob ali khan Phd
Hand hygiene is a key aspect of improving healthcare quality and
reducing infection rates. Here are 10 most recent findings on hand
hygiene.
1. Peer pressure may be more effective than the promise of a cash bonus
in improving hand hygiene compliance rates, according to
a study detailed in a Harvard Business Review article. Researchers
studied the impact of a program wherein hospital employees could all
earn a $1,200 bonus if the hospital as a whole met the compliance
target. However, since physicians are not hospital employees, they
were not eligible for the cash bonus, but their compliance still counted
toward the overall target rate. So other employees used other ways to
encourage physicians to improve hand hygiene compliance, including
writing physicians' names on paper cards and posting them on a wall.
2. A study, published in the Journal of Hospital Infection, examined
the effect of a music-based intervention on hand disinfection duration.
Researchers recorded surgical hand disinfections performed by 236
healthcare workers on video. The workers were divided into an
intervention group and control group. The intervention group could
hear background music as they disinfected their hands.
3. Text messaging via smartphones can help increase hand hygiene
compliance among healthcare workers, a study published in
the American Journal of Infection Control found. Researchers
examined 18 healthcare workers for 12 months using a radiofrequency
identification system. During this time, the workers were sent one of
two types of text messages — congratulation or encouragement.
4. Physician compliance with hand hygiene protocols may improve
when physicians are asked to offer hand sanitizer to patients before
washing their hands with the sanitizer themselves, according to
a study published in the Annals of Family Medicine. The study
involved two parts — one that included patient observation without an

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intervention to encourage physicians to offer patients hand sanitizer;
and the second involved observations made after the intervention was
implemented.
5. A study in the American Journal of Infection Control shows that
team building and a positive culture in a hospital unit helps improve
compliance with hand hygiene recommendations. The study involved
installing an automated hand hygiene surveillance system in a hospital
and giving daily feedback to clinicians in two wards.
6. A study, published in The Journal of Hospital Infection, shows that
bedside hand hygiene is improved when one or two extra healthcare
workers are present in the room. For the study, the researchers analyzed
hand hygiene compliance and associated factors with a radiofrequency
identification-based, real-time, continuous automated monitoring
system in an infectious disease ward.
7. A multifaceted educational intervention led to an increase in hand
hygiene compliance from 28.9 percent to 51.4 percent. The two-month
intervention included talks on hand hygiene and benefits of alcohol-
based hand rub, visual aids, wall-mounted alcohol-based hand rub
dispensers and personal bottles of alcohol-based hand rub.
The study results were published in Antimicrobial Resistance &
Infection Control.
8. Auditing and providing feedback resulted in sustained high
compliance levels at a Lebanese hospital, a study published
in American Journal of Infection Control found. Nurses at the hospital
participated in a lecture about the World Health Organization's "My 5
Moments for Hand Hygiene." They were then divided into three
groups: a control, an incentive-based group and an audit-feedback
group.
9. A study in Emerging Infectious Diseases found that boosting hand
hygiene compliance from the already high rate of 85 percent to higher
than 95 percent was associated with a decrease in healthcare-associated
infections. Hand hygiene compliance improved due to the
implementation of a hospital-wide program that involved measuring

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compliance when entering and leaving patient rooms, among other
interventions.
10. A military practice helped boost the hand hygiene compliance in an
Ohio hospital to 94 percent. The military practice involved
implementing a safety stand-down, stopping nonessential hospital
activities on all units to discuss action plans to improve hand hygiene.
The hospital detailed the results of the implementation in Journal of
Patient Safety.