The results of a new study demonstrate the critical importance of patient hand hygiene in the ongoing effort to reduce hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).
The study, published in The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, was conducted in three intensive care units (ICUs) at a tertiary care center, according to a research brief. It involved 56 patients and was conducted over a 10-week period.
Researchers found that of these patients, seven had at least one aerobic pathogenic bacteria on a hand. Of these seven patients, four patients had at least one multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO). Two of the patients had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), one had vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus and one had ciprofloxacin-resistant gram-negative bacteria.
What makes these results concerning is that, as the researchers note, "… current best practice recommendations do not provide a strong guidance regarding patient hand hygiene."
Infection Control Consulting Services (ICCS) encourages facilities to continue monitoring hand hygiene, ensuring that feedback is provided to staff at least monthly and sharing "real-time" deficiencies in private and as close to the time the suboptimal practice occurred. Monitoring must be an ongoing process measure that, regardless of success, should not be dismissed at any time.