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BackgroundHand hygiene, a simple and low-cost measure, remains the leading intervention for reducing the burden related to healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). While many interventions have been tested to improve staff hand hygiene compliance, hospital visitors continue to have low compliance rates, which increases the risk of HAIs and resistant organisms' transmission into hospitals and out to the community.AimTo assess the effectiveness of educational speech intervention (ESI) for increasing hand hygiene compliance rate among hospital visitors.MethodsThis interventional study was conducted from March to June 2019 in an inpatient unit of a large academic hospital. Visitor hand hygiene compliance was observed before and after implementation of ESI. The purpose of providing ESI to the visitors in the intervention phase was to remind them about the importance of hand hygiene and the proper method for cleaning hands. Post-intervention data were collected using the survey questionnaires. Unpaired t-test compared the hand hygiene compliance rate before and after the intervention.FindingsBaseline hand hygiene compliance rate was 9.73% while hand hygiene compliance rate post-intervention increased to 87.06% (P<0.001). Barriers to hand hygiene compliance included occupied hands, improper location of hand hygiene supplies, and past habit of not practising hand hygiene. Visitors preferred to be reminded about hand hygiene by verbal reminder (57%), followed by signage (38%), and wristband notices (5%).ConclusionThe ESI substantially increased visitors' hand hygiene compliance rate. Further studies are warranted to assess the sustainability of ESI and address other barriers to visitors' hand hygiene compliance.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.jhin.2019.12.002

Type

Journal

The Journal of hospital infection

Publication Date

04/2020

Volume

104

Pages

414 - 418

Addresses

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Keywords

Humans, Cross Infection, Speech, Health Education, Visitors to Patients, Academic Medical Centers, Hospitals, Guideline Adherence, Baltimore, Hand Hygiene, Surveys and Questionnaires