Latest articles from research and practice
World Hand Hygiene Day: Clean care for all
Under the banner of “Clean care for all—it’s in your hands”, on 5 May 2019, WHO calls for a global commitment to achieving access to quality healthcare services and hygienic patient care.
Better hand hygiene and the establishment of WHO’s eight core elements—fundamental infection prevention measures—is crucial for achieving this goal.
DISINFACTS 1/2019
The latest issue of DISINFACTS has many exciting topics in store for you. In addition to useful tips and suggestions on how to deal with this year’s flu epidemic, you will also read about the central aspects of the RKI Research Agenda and important measures for dealing with MRGN in rescue services.
Join in: Patient empowerment in hand hygiene
When it comes to hand hygiene, healthcare workers are often the main target group. On the other hand, current research suggests that actively involving patients in hand hygiene practices could be beneficial. WHO guidelines also include such recommendations.
For a successful implementation, certain requirements have to be met.
International Day of Patient Safety:
Patients and visitors are currently not heavily involved in infection prevention measures. However, the Robert Koch-Institute recommends to actively involve patients and visitors in measures of hand hygiene for the time of their hospital stay. Hygiene expert Prof. Dr. Axel Kramer explains, in which other situations hand hygiene measures can be reasonable.
Benefits of hand disinfection: Also proved for when at home or travelling
Contrary to current media reports, which say that it is pointless or even dangerous to perform hygienic hand disinfection at home or when travelling, it has been proven that this measure may help prevent infection. Here, you will find the recommendations of leading hygiene experts.
Noroviruses: Efficient hygiene management to prevent infection
Although being more active during the winter months, noroviruses may also cause infections and outbreaks in the summer. To prevent further spread it is important to strictly observe certain hygiene measures – with focus on hand hygiene. Learn more and download our concise infographic.
How is your Hospital’s Hand Hygiene Compliance?
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Success of multimodal hand hygiene programmes
Hygiene experts throughout the world agree: in order to improve compliance, strategies need to target the differing barriers and obstacles to successful hand disinfection at several levels. The success of multimodal programmes is due to a mix of, for example, training courses, the availability of products, observation, and feedback.
Studies: Multimodal hand hygiene programmes improve compliance
The effectiveness of multimodal programmes is at the focus of many scientific investigations. The studies, including a recent review, show: evidence-based multimodal interventions are capable of increasing hand hygiene compliance significantly and thus reducing the nosocomial infection rate.
Table: Hygiene measures in the event of MRGN
Multi-resistant Gram-negative pathogens are on the rise worldwide. Due to the limited possibilities for treating infections, hygiene measures for preventing the transmission of pathogens are key. Depending on the pathogens’ resistance patterns and the hospital area concerned, basic hygiene needs to be complemented by further measures.
Study: Disposable wipes increase surface disinfection compliance
In a comparative study, pre-soaked disposable wipes resulted in significantly better employees’ compliance than the bucket method. The disposable surface disinfection wipes also performed better in terms of time needed and costs.
