Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
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Clin. Microbiol. Infect. · Dec 2012
Impact of a hand hygiene educational programme on hospital-acquired infections in medical wards.
Improvement in hand hygiene (HH) compliance has been associated with a decrease in the incidence of hospital-acquired infection (HAI) and hospital-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (HA-MRSA) infection/colonization. We aimed to evaluate the impact of a multimodal intervention in medical wards on HH compliance, alcohol-based hand rub (AHR) consumption and incidence of HAI and HA-MRSA. A before-after intervention study and an assessment 1 year later were conducted in three internal medicine wards. ⋯ HA-MRSA incidence density was 0.92 in the PRE period vs. 0.25/1000 hospital-days in the POST period (p 0.2) and 0.15/1000 hospital-days (p 0.1) 1 year later. A sustained increase in AHR consumption was followed by an improvement in HH compliance after a multimodal campaign. A trend for lower incidence density of new hospital-acquired MRSA was detected in the POST intervention and follow-up periods.