Healthcare Workers’ Compliance with Hand Hygiene After the Introduction of an Alcohol-Based Handrub

Abstract

Hand hygiene of Health Care Workers (HCWs) is a basic measure of hospital infection control but compliance is extremely low. The present study, carried out in intensive care, surgical and medical area of an University Hospital, evaluates the effects of the introduction of an alcohol based handrub among HCWs. It consisted in three surveys: before and at 7 and 30 days after the product introduction. Overall 432 nurses’ working-hours and 3451 handwashing occasions were observed.
The compliance increased significantly from 19.3% (244/1262) in survey 1, to 28.1% (314/1119) and 27.1% (288/1070) (p