• Mackenzie Budimir-Hussey, Lucas Ciprietti, Fawad Ahmed, Christopher Tarola, Andrea Lo, and Maher El-Masri.
• Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, Canada.
• J Patient Saf. 2013 Sep 1;9(3):140-4.

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to explore the self-reported hand hygiene practices and the predictors of hand hygiene among physicians in a midsize Canadian city.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional survey using self-report questionnaire administered to a complete list of 354 local physicians. Perception of proper compliance was defined in a participant if he/she indicated performance of hand hygiene before and after every patient contact at least 80% of the time.ResultsOne hundred fifty-four physicians completed the questionnaire, yielding a 44.9% response rate. Only 45.3% of our sample reported performing preprocedure and postprocedure hand hygiene at least 80% of the time. Stepwise logistic regression results suggested that the variables "presence of hand hygiene auditing" (odds ratio [OR], 3.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.47-6.91), "being too busy" (OR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.20-0.90), "forgetfulness" (OR, 0.27; 95%, CI, 0.13-0.56), and "the perception that hand hygiene products are damaging to the skin" (OR, 0.31;95% CI, 0.11-0.88) were the only independent predictors of physician hand hygiene compliance.ConclusionsHand hygiene compliance among physicians remains an issue. The findings emphasize the need of health-care institutions to prioritize hand hygiene by ensuring proper promotion and enforcement of current policies to all practicing HCPs.

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