Hand hygiene compliance among health-care personnel in intensive care unit of a tertiary care super specialty institute

Abstract

Introduction: Hospital-acquired infections complicate 7%–10% of hospital admissions. Patients in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) are more likely to be colonized or infected. Most of these infections are spread by carriage of microorganisms on the health-care workers' (HCW) hands. Hand hygiene (HH) is the single most important measure to prevent this. Despite relative simplicity of HH procedures and recommendations, compliance with HH is still poor. Aim and Objectives: To assess HH compliance among health-care personnel in the ICU of Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow. Materials and Methods: A prospective cross-sectional observational study using direct observation technique was done. A single observer collected all HH data. A survey was done, before the study, pertaining to perception and knowledge, opportunities, steps, actions, and attitude toward HH. The nursing staff, doctors, and allied health-care personnel were taken as a sample size. The observations were noted for all five moments of HH before and after patient contact. Results: A total of 10 HCW were observed over 50 h of observation period, spread over 1 month, which created 535 HH opportunities. HH actions actually performed by the HCW were 498, and overall compliance of the study group was 93.1%. Conclusion: The average level of compliance with recommended HH techniques among health-care personnel was 93.1% which is appropriate for critical care areas.

Keywords

• Hand hygiene compliance
• health-care personnel
• healthcare-associated infections