Highlights
- •Flashing lights affixed to alcohol-gel dispensers increase hand hygiene compliance.
- •The increase in hand hygiene seen is durable with no apparent fading over time.
- •Fully charged lights had more of an effect, presumably because of greater brightness.
- •A sign prior to alcohol-gel dispensers did not affect hand hygiene (in our setting).
Background
Multiple factors affect compliance with hand hygiene, including conspicuity of alcohol-gel
dispensers. Previous studies have shown that flashing lights increase hand hygiene
compliance; however, the durability of this effect has not been studied.
Methods
We affixed flashing lights to hand sanitizer dispensers for a total of 6 weeks. Regression
analysis was used to compare compliance rates between the beginning and end of the
intervention. Our secondary objective was to determine whether compliance rates in
cold weather could be improved by adding a sign separated in time and space from the
dispensers.
Results
Flashing lights improved hand hygiene compliance from 11.8% to 20.7%, and this effect
was unchanged over the 6-week study period. Fully charged lights resulted in a greater
compliance increase. A preemptive sign did not have a significant effect on hand hygiene
rates nor did absolute temperatures.
Conclusions
Flashing lights are a simple, inexpensive way of improving hand hygiene. Brighter
lights appear to have a greater effect; however, this must be balanced with annoyance
in specific settings. Temperature did not have a significant effect; however, this
may be because the relationship does not fit a linear model. Other interventions,
such as signs, may need to be tailored specifically to individual hospital environments.
Key Words
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: February 24, 2016
Footnotes
Conflicts of interest: None to report.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc.
