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What Do the National Patient Safety Goals Say About Hand Hygiene?

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- December 14, 2017

The Joint Commission’s (JC) National Patient Safety Goals, what are effective from 2018 January are available now. What does the document say about hand hygiene?

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Alternatives for the WHO 6-step Protocol

- February 15, 2018

Last time we wrote about the current 6-step hand hygiene protocol, which formed the base of the EN1500 and WHO hand hygiene recommendations. There are two problems with the 6-step protocol, that are often reported. First, it takes too long to perform. Kampf 2008 reported that performing the 6-steps protocol accurately lasts on average 75 s, while the guideline only requires 30 s. Figure 1 : The 6-step from WHO ‘How to handrub’ and ‘How to handwash’ guide [1]. Second, according to several studies, 6 steps are too many to remember. In Silva 2014 , healthcare professionals were asked about hand hygiene; 98.6% of them replied that they feel very motivated to perform hand hygiene, yet, 38% failed to report the steps of the hand washing technique adequately. Arias 2015 evaluated the compliance of the 6-step by direct observation, and found that while the first two step’s compliance was 100%, thumbs (step5) and fingertips (step6) were achie...

Ignaz Semmelweis

- March 15, 2018

Who was he & why are we so proud of his legacy?

Fluorescent Hand Hygiene Control

What is the fluorescent trial and how can we apply it? For testing one’s hand hygiene, the two most commonly used methods are the microbiological sampling and the fluorescent dying method. In this post, we discuss the fluorescent method in details. The fluorescent method was developed to assess the hand hygiene technique. Health-care workers should perform handrubbing as they usually do, the only difference is that the handrub contains a fluorescent dye. After the hand hygiene event, hands should be placed under (harmless) UV-A light. Regions of hand surface treated with proper amount of fluorescent handrub glow, where untreated areas remain dark. Figure 1: Images of a hand recorded in visible light (A) and in UV light (B) during the fluorescent method. ( Source: HandInScan) The phenomenon of fluorescence occurs when a substance (the dye) absorbs light (energy) and instantly reemits light at a longer wavelength. In this special case, the absorbed light...

World Hand Hygiene Day Quiz

📣 International healthcare workers all around the world! 📣 🎈 Fancy a 5-min break? May 5 is World Hand Hygiene Day and we took the occasion to celebrate YOU, healthcare workers all around the world by creating an entertaining and playful short quiz on hand hygiene. Thank you for your tireless work during this pandemic! 😷 Test your hand hygiene knowledge and get your free "COVID-19 Best Practice Hand Hygiene Training" webinar by filling the quiz here 👉 https://bit.ly/handhygieneday_quiz

Protect yourself against the new coronavirus

- January 27, 2020

Coronavirus. Source Wit et al., 2016. This outbreak started at the end of December 2019 in Vuhan City, China. The virus quickly analyzed, and was found to be different from any previously known human viruses. It was identified as a coronavirus, and named 2019-nCoV ( n ovel co rona v irus). The new strain is closely related to the viruses that cause common cold, SARS or MERS. The most common typical symptoms are fever, cough and breathing difficulties [ 1 ]. There is quite limited information about the new strain, but it is quite well documented what we should do to generally avoid respiratory virus infections. World Health Organization (WHO) published advices for the public on how to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection [ 2 ]: Clean your hands frequently; Proper cough and sneeze hygiene; Social distancing (avoid contacting other people when you are sick, or at risk of acquiring the virus); If you have symptoms, seek medical care early; In coronavirus-infected a...

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