Hand hygiene imperative to patient safety

MOSSEL BAY NEWS & VIDEO - As scientific evidence shows that microbes causing health care-associated infections are most frequently spread between patients on the hands of health-care workers, employees at Mossel Bay's Life Bay View hospital keenly promote both hygiene and patient safety.

International Hand Hygiene Day was celebrated bright and early today, Friday 5 May with a hand alcohol rub rally at the Life Bay View hospital where employees embraced this initiative as the first pillar to promote patient safety.

Infection Prevention and Control Specialist at the Life Bay View hospital, Sr Sarah Cronje was at the helm of a hand alcohol rub rally that formed part of the hospital groups' celebration of International Hand hygiene day. She demonstrated to participants the correct manner to efficiently clean hands using an alcohol rub.

Impact

The challenge of the WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety signifies the importance of hand hygiene in patient safety.

The knock-on impact of focusing on hand hygiene may lead to an overall improvement in health and safety across an entire organization.

It is easy to understand that the hands of staff can become contaminated even after seemingly ‘clean’ procedures such as;
• Taking a pulse
• Taking blood pressure readings
• Taking a temperature

• Touching a patient’s hand, shoulder or groin.

Evidence

Several studies have presented dramatic evidence that microbes have an impressive ability to survive on the hands, sometimes for hours, if hands are not cleaned. All of the studies clearly demonstrate that contaminated hands can be vehicles for the spread of microbes.

Hand hygiene is a simple, low-cost way to prevent the spread of many of the microbes that cause health care-associated infections (HAI). While hand hygiene is not the only measure to counter infections, compliance with it alone can dramatically enhance patient safety, because there is much scientific evidence showing that microbes causing HAI are most frequently spread between patients on the hands of health-care workers.

Participation of staff

All staff namely the porters, nurses, cleaners, laundry staff, kitchen staff even Hospital Manager and Human Resource Manager that came on duty from the Hospital’s entrance was asked to form a line and to take part into the campaign. Alcohol gel was dispersed into the hands of the staff then a demonstration of how to rub the alcohol efficiently and effectively into the hands was demonstrated by the Infection Control Sister.

What sort of microbes can spread during lapses in hand hygiene?

Examples

The following are examples of the types of microbes that can be spread on the hands of health-care practitioners, including doctors:

• Staphylococcus aureus (including MRSA)
• Streptococcus pyogenes (Group A Strep)
• Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE)
• Klebsiella
• Enterobacter
• Pseudomonas
• Clostridium difficile
• Candida
• Rotavirus
• Adenovirus
• Hepatitis A virus
• Norovirus

• Wounds will contain large numbers of microbes. Microbes such as Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella can be present on intact skin in numbers ranging from 100 to 1000 000 per square cm.

Watch a video below: