TY - JOUR
T1 - A ubiquitous but ineffective intervention
T2 - Signs do not increase hand hygiene compliance
AU - Birnbach, David J.
AU - Rosen, Lisa F.
AU - Fitzpatrick, Maureen
AU - Everett-Thomas, Ruth
AU - Arheart, Kristopher L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/5
Y1 - 2017/5
N2 - Proper hand hygiene is critical for preventing healthcare-associated infection, but provider compliance remains suboptimal. While signs are commonly used to remind physicians and nurses to perform hand hygiene, the content of these signs is rarely based on specific, validated health behavior theories. This observational study assessed the efficacy of a hand hygiene sign disseminated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an intensive care unit compared to an optimized evidence-based sign designed by a team of patient safety experts. The optimized sign was developed by four patient safety experts to include known evidence-based components and was subsequently validated by surveying ten physicians and ten nurses using a 10 point Likert scale. Eighty-two physicians and 98 nurses (102 females; 78 males) were observed for hand hygiene (HH) compliance, and the total HH compliance rate was 16%. HH compliance was not significantly different among the signs (Baseline 10% vs. CDC 18% vs. OIS 20%; p = 0.280). The findings of this study suggest that even when the content and design of a hand hygiene reminder sign incorporates evidence-based constructs, healthcare providers comply only a fraction of the time.
AB - Proper hand hygiene is critical for preventing healthcare-associated infection, but provider compliance remains suboptimal. While signs are commonly used to remind physicians and nurses to perform hand hygiene, the content of these signs is rarely based on specific, validated health behavior theories. This observational study assessed the efficacy of a hand hygiene sign disseminated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an intensive care unit compared to an optimized evidence-based sign designed by a team of patient safety experts. The optimized sign was developed by four patient safety experts to include known evidence-based components and was subsequently validated by surveying ten physicians and ten nurses using a 10 point Likert scale. Eighty-two physicians and 98 nurses (102 females; 78 males) were observed for hand hygiene (HH) compliance, and the total HH compliance rate was 16%. HH compliance was not significantly different among the signs (Baseline 10% vs. CDC 18% vs. OIS 20%; p = 0.280). The findings of this study suggest that even when the content and design of a hand hygiene reminder sign incorporates evidence-based constructs, healthcare providers comply only a fraction of the time.
KW - Hand hygiene
KW - Healthcare-associated infection
KW - Public health
KW - Signs
KW - Visual cues
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jiph.2016.05.015
DO - 10.1016/j.jiph.2016.05.015
M3 - Article
C2 - 27422141
AN - SCOPUS:85002683569
VL - 10
SP - 295
EP - 298
JO - Journal of Infection and Public Health
JF - Journal of Infection and Public Health
SN - 1876-0341
IS - 3
ER -