Abstract

Objectives To assess the compliance of hand hygiene (HH) practices of staff and determine the impact of multimodal interventions to improve hand hygiene practices. Methods A prospective study was conducted to determine the hand hygiene (HH) practices of staff according to the World Health Organization’s “5 moments of HH”. During random visits to the general wards, HH practices of staff were observed for 41 weeks during 2014-15. During the first 8 weeks, the basic compliance rate (BCR) was calculated. A BCR of 50% or more was considered compliant. Data were provided to the staff via email. Toolbox talks, posters, and other educational interventions were instituted in a multimodal manner. Wards were visited by infection control staff to reinforce HH practices. During the post-intervention phase, the HH practices were reassessed for 33 weeks to compare the impact of interventions. Results A total of 13,120 observations were made. Participants ranged from ages 18 to 65. The overall average BCR before intervention was 34.1%, for the first 8 weeks, while it increased to 62.3%, over the next 33 weeks, after the multimodal interventions (p =0.007). The wards which showed significant improvement include Paediatrics (p <0.0001), Male Surgical (p = 0.001), Female Surgical (p = 0.005), Male Medical (p < 0.0001), Haemodialysis Unit (p < 0.0001), ICU, (p = 0.038), and Accident and Emergency (p = 0.007). Obstetric, Female Medical, and Oncology wards did not show statistically significant improvement. Conclusion Hand Hygiene compliance rate of staff can be improved by multimodal interventions in a General Hospital setting.

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