Hospital-acquired infections impact nearly two million Americans every year, yet healthcare workers could prevent nearly 70 percent of these infections if they follow infection control protocols such as washing their hands, according to Medical Xpress.
Ann Arbor-based University Of Michigan researchers set out to discover how implementing certain strategies could increase infection control compliance.
Here are four things to know:
1. Once an Italian hospital introduced personal bottles of handrub to workers, adherence rates increased from 28 percent to 47 percent of physicians one year after intervention.
2. At the University of Geneva in Switzerland, compliance increased from 48 percent to 66 percent after introducing personal bottles of handrub. The hospital's overall infection rate decreased from 16.9 percent to 9.9 percent.
3. Once a healthcare practice installed video cameras showing sinks and the handrub dispenser, the practice found an eightfold improvement in hand hygiene compliance.
4. One hospital had a hand hygiene compliance rate of more than 95 percent when they enlisted the help of healthcare personnel to give staff immediate positive and negative feedback.
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