Hand Hygiene Day

"Hand Hygiene is the cornerstone on which infection control prevention rest. Without it, other efforts we make at infection control are going to be insufficient." -Alicia Muñoz

Proper hand hygiene is the #1 way to prevent the spread of disease within the hospital. "Adering to the basics will prevent the transmission of infection, and proper hand hygiene is one of the most basic practices." Although hand hygiene is one of the most simple practices and play a big role in infection control and prevention, the compliance rates at most hospitals are too low. At Paradise Valley Hospital, the hand hygiene compliance rate is about 60%.

At Vanderbilt University Hospital, they were able to improve their compliance rates by nearly half and this decreased urinary tract infections by 33%, ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAPs) by 61%, and bloodstream infections by 80%. This conveys that practicing proper hand hygiene has a huge role in preventing HAIs.

June 19th is Hand Hygiene Day. During this event, representatives from Sani-Hands will come over to the hospital to give out hand wipes and hand sanitizer to promote proper hand hygiene within the hospital, staff members can take the pledge to practice good hand hygiene and there will be competitions between the departments in the hospital that will see who knows the most about proper hand hygiene.

My part is to promote this event within the hospital, organize the pledge taking. This will require me to create eye-catching posters to promote the event, plan out the pledge taking, and assist Sherilyn with organizing the competition and the representatives.

Resources:

http://news.yahoo.com/clean-hands--vanderbilt-s-hand-washing-initiative-172312795.html