Hospital Acquired Infection and Hand Hygiene

Executive Summary

Hospital acquired infection (HAI) is most common problem in healthcare. According to recent report, our hospital has one of the highest rates of HAIs in the region. Hand hygiene is the simplest way to reduce HAIs in hospital. Our hospital’s hand hygiene compliance rate is 80%, however, this might be overrated due to the Hawthorn effect. As a CEO of the hospital, I drew from two evidences currently available to improve levels of hand hygiene compliance. Evidence suggest that a hospital wide hand hygiene interventions and a team and leader- directed interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance. However, hand hygiene cannot be achieved through any single intervention. Therefore, multifaceted interventions are vital to improve hand hygiene in healthcare. I would suggest some recommendations to the Hospital Board to consider as hand hygiene interventions. Appropriate leadership, provide adequate education and training, implement environmental changes, initiate organisational culture and system changes and use appropriate measurement are all to consider by the Hospital Board. These interventions also should align with patient’s quality and safety of care. Through these hand hygiene interventions, our hospital will be able to achieve hand hygiene compliance, then as a result, HAI rates will be reduced.Hospital Acquired Infection and Hand Hygiene

Introduction

Hospital acquired infections are the major concerns in hospital settings (Huis, 2013). The Board and District Health Services set to reduce HAI rates as one of our hospital’s key performing indicators. However, local newspaper recently published that our hospital has one of the highest rates of HAIs in the region. Hand hygiene is one of the most important intervention to prevent healthcare associated infections (Kirkland, 2012). Although, our hospital has met the state’s minimum requirement for accreditation, this might be overestimated because of the Hawthorn effect. Recent survey shows that about 7.1% of patients were affected by HAIs in Europe (Huis, 2013). Although hand hygiene is the most effective intervention to prevent HAIs, hand hygiene compliance rate in healthcare workers continues to be low and most hospitals still facing a challenge to improve hand hygiene (Kirkland, 2012).