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VOLUME 6 , ISSUE 1 ( January-June, 2018 ) > List of Articles

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

A One-year Observational Study on Hand Hygiene Practices in an Open Intensive Care Unit of a Large Teaching Hospital in India

P Naveen Kumar, Shivakumar, Uttham Sharma

Keywords : Hand hygiene of health care workers, Health careassociated infections, Infection control nurse, Patient safety, World Health Organization observation form study

Citation Information : Kumar PN, S, Sharma U. A One-year Observational Study on Hand Hygiene Practices in an Open Intensive Care Unit of a Large Teaching Hospital in India. Int J Res Foundation Hosp Healthc Adm 2018; 6 (1):17-21.

DOI: 10.5005/jp-journals-10035-1086

License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Published Online: 01-02-2018

Copyright Statement:  Copyright © 2018; The Author(s).


Abstract

Health care-associated infection (HCAI) is the commonest complication affecting hospitalized patients. The infection sources in a hospital are personnel, hospital's inanimate environment, and self-infection. Direct transmission accounts to 70% of infection transfer. Bacteria, fungi, and viruses have been reported as causative agents in HCAIs, and many infections are polymicrobial. Effective safety management in the 21st century involves keeping an eye on human factors and highly reliable organizations can identify and capture potential hazards before they show themselves as accidents. One method of achieving this is by measuring the level of safety through “leading” indicators. An active surveillance to measure the adherence to hygiene of hands of employees is conducted by the infection control nurses randomly in the critical areas in this hospital. Hand Hygiene Moment Observation Form taken from the original World Health Organization (WHO) 5 Moments “Observation Form” is used for observation. The compliance among nurses is greater compared with doctors in the intensive care unit (ICU), 64.44 to 60.74%. During the said period, the number of infections incidence in ICU compared with overall hospital's infections was 62.98%. The nurses had 7 opportunities and doctors had 10 opportunities to wash hands during 1-hour period, and the average time spent for washing was 8 seconds by doctors and 14 seconds by nurses.


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