Health Systems Report Successful Hand Hygiene Compliance

University of Michigan Health and Newark Beth Israel Medical Center reported improved hand hygiene compliance through the implementation of new programs. Both health systems presented the results of their hand hygiene compliance strategies at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology’s (APIC) annual conference this week.

This year’s conference, which took place June 26 to 28 in Orlando, Florida, centers around hand hygiene being the simplest, most effective way to prevent the spread of infections in healthcare.

According to an APIC news release, University of Michigan Health sustained a 95% hospital-wide hand hygiene compliance through the creation of an interactive, visual dashboard system implemented in 2018. Through use of commercially available Business Intelligence (BI) software, they generated weekly and monthly compliance reports, made month-to-month comparisons, and filtered data by unit and role to show the rate at which healthcare workers cleaned their hands at the appropriate moments.

Though their goal is 100% compliance, Marissa Yee, infection preventionist at University of Michigan Health, said they are requiring a minimum of 95%. Yee said they reached 97% last month.

Meanwhile, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center Achieved a 98% increase in compliance using an automated hand hygiene monitoring system (AHHMS) launched in 2019.

“The automated monitoring system provides a level of accountability that is needed to supplement existing efforts and bring about a noticeable improvement in hand hygiene,” said Ndubuisi Eke-Okoro, infection preventionist at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. “Hospital leaders at every level are actively engaged and supportive of this effort which has been critical to our success.”

Newark hosted an intervention period to run AHHMS that took place from March 2022 to April 2023. During that time, their median hand hygiene rate increased in ranges from 67% to 132%—with the average increase being 98% across all trial areas.

“Hand hygiene is the cornerstone of infection prevention, but achieving and sustaining high compliance is often elusive,” Patricia Jackson, APIC 2023 president, said. “We congratulate the University of Michigan Health and Newark Beth Israel for implementation of such effective programs and thank them for sharing their successful approaches at APIC’s Annual Conference.”