3 hand-washing tips for ASCs

Effective handwashing practices are top of mind for ASC leaders. Here are three that experts shared with Becker's ASC Review:

1. Gina Calder, Bridgeport (Conn.) Hospital's vice president of ambulatory services:

"Embracing and reinforcing a safety culture is key. At Bridgeport Hospital, we practice 200 percent accountability, and team members crosscheck one another if they are not following expected hand-washing practices. Our medical director of infection prevention and control launches promotional and educational campaigns that reinforce the importance of hand- washing."

2. Naomi Kuznets, PhD, vice president and senior director of the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care's Institute for Quality Improvement:

"Hand hygiene is an issue for us as a society overall. Providers are rushed. They believe they have clean hands, or they are not aware of the exact guideline recommendations for hand hygiene. This means ASCs must emphasize that hand hygiene is important enough to take the time. ASCs also should make sure that providers know and are reminded what the components of hand hygiene recommendations are."

3. Lynn M. Nolan, MSN, RN, manager of the Universal Care Center and post anesthesia care unit at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest (Ill.) Hospital:

"ASCs are a rapidly changing environment, and effective throughput is one of the most important factors in ensuring efficient, high quality and cost-effective care. Analytic data is necessary and something often thought of after implementing process improvement. I would recommend identifying your specific metrics and then having analytic data in place to evaluate the effectiveness of process change."

Interested in participating in a Becker's Q&A? Contact Rachel Popa at rpopa@beckershealthcare.com