How to improve hand hygiene? A picture is worth a thousand germs
Key Takeaways
How do you get health care workers to improve hand hygiene? Gross them out: show them images of bacterial contamination on their hands and on surfaces they’re touching, according to results of a study presented June 11, 2016 at the 43rd Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) held in Charlotte, NC.
Infection control specialists at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI, showed hospital staff magnified images of cultured bacteria found on common objects in the health care environment—such as a mouse pad, a work station, a smartphone, and a worker’s hand.
“These images put a face to the continuous hand hygiene education that health care workers get,” said study co-author Ashley Gregory, MSL, an infection prevention specialist. “They stick in your mind.”
“They gross you out,” said the study’s other co-author Eman Chami, MHA, also an infection prevention specialist at Henry Ford. “And they really magnify what people can’t see.”
Numerous studies have shown that hand hygiene reduces infections in health care settings. Despite a number of measures aimed at further improving the compliance rate at Henry Ford, the rate remained static at 70%, the researchers explained.
They performed this study in an attempt to improve hand hygiene in 4 units with low compliance rates. They visited each unit 10 times and swabbed various items for bacteria (including workers' hands) using an adenosine triphosphate meter. At each visit, the investigators then showed the workers magnified photos of bacterial cultures similar to the contamination found on their hands and the objects' surfaces.
In the four units, compliance rates increased 22.9%, 36%, 142%, and 37.6% respectively.
“I think health care workers in general become numb to the fact that hospitals are an environment of germs,” Ms. Gregory said. “We believe our study demonstrates that pictures go a long way to breaking that detachment, and gives hospitals a new tool for their hand hygiene toolkit.”