PAPHR brushing up on hand-washing stats

More health-care workers in the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region (PAPHR) are washing their hands.

That’s what was discovered after a second hand hygiene compliance audit was conducted in November 2014.

Ewelina Dziak is with Infection Control at the PAPHR.  She said the May 2014 audit revealed only 54.4 per cent of employees were washing their hands consistently and correctly.  This led to a surge in training and awareness and second audit in November 2014.

That audit saw an almost 10 per cent increase in employees washing their hands correctly at 64.3 per cent.

Dziak said all departments saw improvement, even if it was only by a few percentages.  However, Dziak said those departments that didn’t meet the targets laid out will have to come up with a plan.

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“There’s still a lot of a health-care worker categories that do not meet the target at all, so like the porters, food and nutrition, other health-care workers which include, like, social workers and things like that, they’re all quite low,” she said. 

“So what I’m saying is they’re going to be putting the onus back on those departments or health-care worker categories not doing well and asking them to figure out what supports they need to personally improve,” she said, which could be education or access or something the PAPHR is missing.

Changes since the first audit

-increase and changed foam soap dispenser locations at point-of-care for health-care workers to make them more accessible

– Training for how to wash hands properly

– A written policy and procedure regarding hand hygiene put in place highlighting nail care

– PowerPoint presentations and examinations covering hand hygiene (how to and the four moments to wash your hands), appropriate glove use and personal protective equipment put in place

– Routinely monitor health-care provider on hand hygiene compliance and provide timely feedback

One of the biggest changes from the list above that Dziak felt was important surrounded nail care rules.

“You have to have your … natural nails, so no nail polish, no gel nails, no acrylics, no shellacking; things like that,” she said.

“There is a lot of literature and documents that note an association between specifically gel nails and a lack of hand hygiene compliance just because you have your nails, your get your nails, they’re paid for, they look nice (and) you don’t want to wash your hands.”

The PAPHR is planning another audit in May. Dziak said from now on they are going to be doing two audits a year.

“Our eventual target is 80 per cent and once departments start meeting that then we’ll push it from doing an audit everywhere twice a year to maybe just doing those departments that meet that target once a year,” she said.

Overall, she said she was happy with the results so far.

“With only five months and [a] couple interventions put into place and not even reaching all the health care workers … and to see a 10 per cent improvement is huge,” she said.

She said it important to note more people wash their hands than indicated in the PAPHR, but they may not do it long enough or follow the proper steps.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84