Deciding how and when to measure hand hygiene compliance can be a challenging task; however, addressing a few key questions before planning a hand hygiene surveillance program can assist infection preventionists and nursing officers in this endeavor. According to a monograph from The Joint Commission, the following questions should be answered before choosing a method of compliance measurement.
1. Why do you want to measure hand hygiene practices, and what are your organization's goals? A clear answer to why an organization is measuring hand hygiene can be crucial for knowing which information to collect, how and how often to collect it.
2. What elements of hand hygiene do you want to measure? Narrowing down a measurement focus to a few key indicators is essential to the logistics of data collection.
3. How do you want to measure hand hygiene? There are three main ways to measure hand hygiene — direct observation, measuring product use and conducting surveys — each with various advantages and disadvantages. Will the organization choose one or use a combination? Which approach is best for the organization's purposes in measuring hand hygiene in the first place?
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1. Why do you want to measure hand hygiene practices, and what are your organization's goals? A clear answer to why an organization is measuring hand hygiene can be crucial for knowing which information to collect, how and how often to collect it.
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2. What elements of hand hygiene do you want to measure? Narrowing down a measurement focus to a few key indicators is essential to the logistics of data collection.
3. How do you want to measure hand hygiene? There are three main ways to measure hand hygiene — direct observation, measuring product use and conducting surveys — each with various advantages and disadvantages. Will the organization choose one or use a combination? Which approach is best for the organization's purposes in measuring hand hygiene in the first place?
