I am always looking to new approaches for increasing hand hygiene compliance. Here is an article published in the American Journal of Infection Control that caught my eye.The investigators used a simple red light flashing at 2-3 Hz affixed to the alcohol gel dispensers, within the main hospital entrance.. Baseline and intervention observations were completed over five 60-minute periods (Monday-Friday) from 7:30 to 8:30 AM using a covert observation method.
Baseline hand hygiene compliance was 12.4%. The intervention increased compliance to 23.5% during cold weather and 27.1% during warm weather.
Really? Do we think that this will have a significant and lasting impact of hand hygiene compliance and infection prevention outcomes?
I doubt it.
In my opinion, hand hygiene programs should preferentially focus on staff, use education, prompts, maximize accessibility of hand sanitizers, employ observation and feedback, and if feasible, employ automated hand hygiene monitoring technologies.
The blink red light is not sufficient.
