[New approaches to the monitoring of hospital hygiene: assessment of hygiene skills of staff members by structured interviews and observation]

Increasing demands on hygiene in hospitals require improved methods of systematic monitoring by the Public Health Service.The hygiene skills of at least 20% of the hospital physicians and nurses were evaluated by structured interviews and observation. The results were presented to the hospitals.In total, 184 persons were reviewed in 5 hospitals. On average, 7 out of 10 questions on hygiene knowledge were answered correctly, 74% of the persons asked demonstrated proper hand hygiene and 66% of them were not wearing any jewellery on their hands. There were no significant differences between physicians and nurses. The slight differences between the 5 hospitals were transferred into a ranking.The application of the method provides additional information on hygiene in hospitals and allows a comparison of the hygiene skills of their staff members. The results form the basis for a dialogue between hospital and Public Health Service.