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Background
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hand hygiene (HH) is
the number one way to prevent transmission of infection. The purpose of this performance
improvement (PI) project was to improve internal hand hygiene compliance, monitored
via the revamped observational compliance program.
Methods
The setting was a 397 bed, acute-care medical center. All inpatient departments and
roles were monitored for compliance. The goal was to improve the hospital's internal
HH compliance by rebuilding the observation program and regularly implementing initiatives
to raise awareness for HH throughout the year. A target of 90% was used as a measure
of success. A corrective action plan was utilized within a multi-disciplinary workgroup
to establish action items and track progress. Due to a failing observation tool, a
new phone application was developed leveraging available hospital technology. An interactive
data-stratification dashboard was developed that auto-configured observation data,
providing a standard method for reporting. New volunteers (unit-based and travelers)
were selected, trained, competencied, and incentivized to participate. Additional
initiatives included: targeted in-person education, a coaching catchphrase contest,
fun-fact sharing at team huddles, HH technique posters distributed, stickers distributed
for appropriately performing HH, a behavioral survey was created to understand barriers
and opportunities, and a HH technique blacklight assessment activity was conducted.
The data was continuously monitored to track and trend internal compliance rates.
Results
Internal compliance improved from 57% to 90% between the months of March 2019 (program
go-live) and October 2019. The total number of observations was 5145, averaging over
500 per month. Additionally, role based data was now available for targeted education
purposes and report card sharing.
Conclusions
This PI project found that by engaging a multi-disciplinary team, reestablishing a
compliance observation program, leveraging innovative technology, and involving hospital
leadership, internal HH compliance rates can be improved.
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Copyright
© 2020 Published by Elsevier Inc.
