Spotlight: Handwashing

In the United States, hospital patients get nearly 2 million infections each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s about 1 infection for every 20 patients. Infections that patients get in the hospital can be life-threatening and hard to treat. Hand hygiene is one of the most important ways to prevent the spread of infections.

Healthcare providers should practice hand hygiene at key points in time to disrupt the transmission of microorganisms to patients including:

• before patient contact
• after contact with blood, body fluids, or contaminated surfaces (even if gloves are worn) before invasive procedures
• after removing gloves (wearing gloves is not enough to prevent the transmission of pathogens in healthcare settings)

Patients and their loved ones can play a role in helping to prevent infections by practicing hand hygiene themselves as well as asking or reminding their healthcare providers to perform hand hygiene.
 

Key Resources

WHO 2009 Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care
The Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings provides health-care workers with a review of data regarding handwashing and hand antisepsis in health-care settings. In addition, it provides specific recommendations to promote improved hand-hygiene practices and reduce transmission of pathogenic microorganisms to patients and personnel in health-care settings.

Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings
The Centers for Disease Control website provides healthcare workers and patients with a variety of resources including guidelines for providers, patient empowerment materials, the latest technological advances in hand hygiene adherence measurement, and links to promotional and educational tools.