Long-term sustainability of hand hygiene improvements in the hemodialysis setting

Purpose In a previous observational intervention study, we achieved a more than 100 % increase in overall hand hygiene (HH) compliance in the hemodialysis setting by increasing the number of hand rubs (HR) performed and concomitantly optimizing HH standard operating procedures (SOPs). SOPs were main...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Infection 2013-06, Vol.41 (3), p.675-680
Main Authors: Scheithauer, S., Eitner, F., Häfner, H., Floege, J., Lemmen, S. W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brief Report
Family Medicine
Follow-Up Studies
General Practice
Guideline Adherence - statistics & numerical data
Hand Hygiene - methods
Hand Hygiene - standards
Health Services Research
Humans
Infection Control - methods
Infection Control - standards
Infectious Diseases
Internal Medicine
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Renal Dialysis - adverse effects
Renal Dialysis - methods
Renal Dialysis - standards
Time Factors
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Summary:Purpose In a previous observational intervention study, we achieved a more than 100 % increase in overall hand hygiene (HH) compliance in the hemodialysis setting by increasing the number of hand rubs (HR) performed and concomitantly optimizing HH standard operating procedures (SOPs). SOPs were mainly aimed at reducing the number of avoidable opportunities due to a less than perfect workflow. However, the long-term sustainability of this successful intervention was not evaluated. The present study was carried out to evaluate the long-term effects of our previous successful intervention. Methods We conducted a follow-up observational study 1 year after the first intervention study in the same hemodialysis unit to assess the sustainability. No HH-related interventions were performed in the 1 year between studies. The main outcome was HH compliance, and the secondary outcome was opportunities per hemodialysis procedure. Results A total of 1,574 opportunities for HH and 871 hand rubs (HR) were observed during the follow-up observational study. Overall, compliance was 55 %, which was significantly than that at the end of the first study (62 %; p  
ISSN:0300-8126
1439-0973
DOI:10.1007/s15010-013-0424-0