Doctors, nurses and other health professionals have been urged to wash their hands frequently. Hospitals even penalize health care professionals who do not follow hygiene guidelines.
But is the message getting through to patients that hand washing is especially important inside hospitals?
Canadian researchers used electronic monitoring technology on soap and sanitizer dispenses to measure when patients in three transplant units washed their hands. These people are especially to severe infections such as norovirus, C. diff or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) because their immune systems are suppressed.
Nonetheless, these patients only washed their hands about 30 percent of the time after using the bathroom, 40 percent of the time before meals and only 3 percent of the time when using cooking facilities on the units. Perhaps it’s time for hospitals to focus some attention on hand hygiene for patients and visitors as well as health care providers.
[Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, Oct. 2014]
