Science has proved the benefits of hand hygiene; however, in clinical routine, compliance with hygiene protocols often lacks. In a 2019 publication , the Geneva-based “Infection Prevention and Control” (IPC) think tank headed by Didier Pittet identifies implementation skills training as the most important element in teaching hygiene practices.
Do good and talk about it: In her “Hygiene Communication Concept”, Claudia James, hygiene-specialist and managing director at HyTrain GmbH, explains how communication can improve hand hygiene compliance of physicians and nursing staff. By voicing hand disinfection staff shapes own hygiene behaviour and at the same time gives patients valuable insights into possibilities to participate in their own healing process. In our interview, the expert describes the background to her findings and gives specific instructions for putting these into practice.
How can hand hygiene compliance in hospitals be increased? This is one question that Simone Scheithauer addresses in her studies. Scheithauer is head of the Institute for Hospital Hygiene and Infectious Diseases at the University Hospital Göttingen, Germany. In the interview, she reveals reasons for poor compliance, along with effective approaches for better hand hygiene.
Few people have recognised the medical necessity of hand hygiene the way Professor Didier Pittet has for more than a quarter-century. Pittet serves as the director of the Infection Control Programme at the University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine and World Health Organization (WHO Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety); in addition, he is the lead adviser of the WHO’s First Global Patient Safety Challenge: Clean Care is Safer Care. As a global authority in role of healthcare-associated infections (HAI), he gives us an overview of how hand hygiene makes a life-saving difference.
Hand hygiene is widely recognised as the single most effective means of reducing healthcare-associated infections (HAI), such as surgical site infections. Implementing standardised hand disinfection processes in healthcare facilities and maintaining high compliance among healthcare professionals are needed to protect staff and patients from infections.
