Results of the intervention on hand hygiene at the Khanh Hoa general hospital in 2014

Abstract

     Nosocomial infection is one of leading causes threatening patient safety. Hand hygiene (HH) before and after contacting with patients is considered as simplest and most cost-effective solution which can reduce the risk of nosocomial infection by 50%. This study aims to evaluate the intervention on HH of doctors and nurses at 7 clinical departments in Khanh Hoa general hospital based on observations of all 214 doctors and nurses before and after intervention. Study findings show that HH compliance rate increases from 14.8% to 43.9% (p<0.01). The neurosurgery department has the highest HH increasing rate of 61.4% (from 5.3% to 66.7%) while the department of thoracic surgery has the lowest HH increasing rate of 10.3% only. Of those staff complying HH, the rate of correct practice increases from 62.1% to 82.3% (p<0.01). The hospital should maintain those interventions, and conduct continuous training on HH for all staff every 6 months. The departments’ leaders need to regularly remind on HH during department meetings while the department of infection control in collaboration with infection control network among clinical departments conducts HH control and supervision periodically and extraordinarily, and includes these results into criteria for monthly staff work performance assessment.