According to the CDC, the average hand hygiene compliance rate is just 40 percent.1 That’s a major cause for concern, especially when you consider that hand hygiene is the number one defense against hospital-acquired infections and that handwashing alone could prevent 20,000 patient deaths per year.2,3
Hand hygiene is a crucial and timely concern. As of October 1, 2008, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will cease reimbursing facilities for eight healthcare-acquired conditions. Among those conditions are three infections: bloodstream, surgical site and urinary tract infections. Hand hygiene has an important role to play in the prevention of infections. In fact, it’s been named the number one defense against healthcare-acquired conditions.2
Medline partnered with industry leaders and experts to develop our Hand Hygiene Compliance Program. The program is designed to address and overcome what we have found to be the most common barriers to compliance:
- Lack of education
- Behavioral challenges
- Poor skin condition
Click here to request more information on the Hand Hygiene Compliance Program and Healthy Hands Product Bundle!
References
1 Boyce JM, Pittet D. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Guideline for hand hygiene in health-care settings. Recommendations of the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee and the
HICPAC/SHEA/APIC/IDSA Hand Hygiene Task Force. MMWR. 2002;51:1-45.
2 Davis D, Sosovec D. The value of products that improve hand hygiene and skin. Healthcare Purchasing News. Available at: http://www.hpnonline.com/inside/2003-11/1103hygiene.htm.
Accessed November 20, 2007.
3 Berens M. Tribune investigation: Unhealthy hospitals. Chicago Tribune. 2002 July 21.
