As World Hand Hygiene Day approaches on May 5th, we join hospitals around the globe and the World Health Organization (WHO) in raising awareness about the importance of hand hygiene. Using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer frequently at key moments and washing with soap and water when hands are visibly soiled or contaminated are key steps in any infection prevention program. Public health organizations all over the world join in this celebration, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health Canada.
Experts globally, from the WHO to the CDC, strongly agree that promoting – and practicing – good hand hygiene is an incredibly effective way to reduce germs that may cause illness. Hand hygiene has played an important role in patient care at healthcare facilities for many decades. Practicing good hand hygiene is fundamental to patient safety, whether the setting is a hospital, nursing home, ambulatory surgery center, physician’s office, or other outpatient medical facility.
Unite through electronic hand hygiene monitoring
Over the last decade, the use of automated hand hygiene monitoring systems (AHHMS) as a tool to improve healthcare personnel hand hygiene has been increasing. The technology of these systems, such as our PURELL SMARTLINK™ system, has also advanced.
This year’s World Hand Hygiene Day, “Unite for safety: clean your hands,” is very relevant when implementing AHHMS in healthcare facilities. To achieve the greatest improvement in hand hygiene performance rates, it’s vital for the healthcare facility to work in partnership with the vendor, like GOJO, to maximize the impact of the AHHMS.
In fact, a study measuring hand hygiene performance rates using the SMARTLINK™ Activity Monitoring System in 10 hospitals throughout North America showed greater sustained increases in hand hygiene performance when the hospital worked in collaboration with a vendor to implement the system and complementary interventions.1 Hospital units in the group that united the AHHMS with clinician-based vendor support and hospital-led unit-based initiatives (“Vendor + Hospital group“) had a statistically significant increase of at least 46% in HH performance compared with units in the other three groups (p ≤ 0.006).1
Vendor-supported or hospital-led unit-based complementary strategies individually combined with AHHMS were not sufficient additions to significantly improve hand hygiene performance. The increases of the Vendor + Hospital group are: 76% over Vendor Only (46.9/26.7 = 1.76), 46% over Hospital Only (46.9/32.1=1.46) and 48% over AHHMS Alone (46.9/31.7=1.48). 1
These findings are similar to a poster presented at the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Decennial conference in 2020,2 which illustrates the value of a partnership between the hospital and the AHHMS vendor.
At GOJO, we’re committed to advancing the science and learning around hygiene and providing effective resources to healthcare facilities globally. This work further demonstrates the power of that effort by providing meaningfully better hygiene solutions to our customers globally. By uniting, we can all improve hand hygiene!
Supporting global public health
GOJO is one of the founding members of the WHO initiative, Private Organizations for Patient Safety (POPS), which launched on World Hand Hygiene Day in 2012. POPS enables the WHO and private organizations to collaboratively work towards improving hand hygiene education and outcomes.
GOJO has been committed to helping the world safely clean their hands for 76 years and leading the science of formulation and delivery systems engineering to ensure every dose of soap or alcohol-based hand rub delivers a safe, efficacious, and pleasant result. Thanks to significant investments in our manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain capabilities over the past 18 months, we are in a strong position to support all types of healthcare facilities, schools, vaccination centers, restaurants, grocery stores, stores/online retailers, airports, and other businesses with PURELL® products.
For more information on World Hand Hygiene Day, visit the WHO SAVE LIVES - Clean Your Hands campaign and World Hand Hygiene Day 2022.