Monitoring Improves Hand Hygiene Compliance

A GOJO Industries study recently published in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (ICHE) found that health care facilities actively partnered with an automated hand hygiene monitoring system (AHHMS) vendor were able to achieve significant improvement in hand hygiene performance rates.

The multi-year study reviewed 243 million hand hygiene opportunities over 58 units within 10 hospitals in North America. When AHHMS vendors were paired with hospitals, researchers recorded a 76% increase in hand hygiene performance compared to vendors alone and a 46% increase compared to only hospitals.

“The use of AHHMS has been growing over the past decade as hospitals increasingly recognize it as a valuable tool in the fight to improve health care worker hand hygiene,” said Lori Moore, co-author of the study and GOJO clinical educator. “It’s been shown to provide substantially more quantitative data than direct observations and without observer bias. It provides a real-time view for infection control staff to see how well their hand hygiene performance improvement strategies are working—and if they aren’t, they can quickly adjust course.”

Jim Arbogast, Ph.D., lead author of the study and GOJO vice president of hygiene sciences and public health advancements, commented, “The evidence is clear that clinician-based support from their AHHMS vendor is a critical component that hospitals can’t overlook in their hand hygiene performance efforts. Health care facilities shouldn’t install an AHHMS and forget about it.”