1. Perform hand hygiene and the doors will open – the effectiveness of new system implementation on paediatric intensive care unit visitors’ handwashing compliance
- Author
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Eli Shapiro, Keren Mahlab-Guri, Eric Scheier, Pnina Ciobotaro, and Alex Guri
- Subjects
Personnel, Hospital ,Infection Control ,Infectious Diseases ,intensive care units ,Epidemiology ,Humans ,Short Paper ,Hand Hygiene ,Guideline Adherence ,Prospective Studies ,visitors to patients ,Intensive Care Units, Pediatric ,infectious disease control - Abstract
Hand hygiene (HH) performance on entering intensive care units (ICUs) is commonly accepted but often inadequately performed. We developed a simple, inexpensive module that connects touchless dispensers of alcohol sanitiser (TDAS) to the automatic doors of a paediatric ICU, and assessed the impact of this intervention on HH compliance of hospital staff and visitors. A prospective observational study was conducted over a 3-week period prior to the intervention, followed by a 4-week period post intervention. HH performance was monitored by a research assistant whose office location enabled direct and video-assisted observation of the ICU entrance. A total of 609 entries to the ICU was recorded. Overall HH performance was 46.9% (92/196) before and 98.5% (406/413) after the intervention. Our findings suggest that HH performance on entering an ICU can be improved via a mechanism that makes operation of an automatic door dependent on use of a TDAS system, and thus contribute to infection control.
- Published
- 2021