Hand Hygiene Practices and Compliance with Hand Hygiene Protocols by Health Care Workers at a Tertiary Care Hospital in India – An Observational Study

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study is to observe the hand hygiene practices being followed in departments of Surgery, Orthopaedics, Medicine and Obstetrics & gynaecology at a tertiary care hospital, in accordance with the WHO guidelines. The objective of this study was to observe hand hygiene practices being followed amongst health care workers, assess the hand hygiene protocol being followed and compare it with the questionnaire filled by the health care workers, and assess the reason for non-compliance.

Methods: An observational study was carried out on 90 health care workers (HCWs). HCWs were observed at random in ward, OPD and emergency. This was followed by assessing the knowledge& awareness of the HCWs regarding hand hygiene with the help of a questionnaire being duly filled by participants.

Results: The result has been discussed under three headings, namely, analysis of the observation tool, analysis of the questionnaire and the comparison of relevant points between the observation tool and the questionnaire. The compliance in the OPD, Ward, Emergency came out to be 74.2%, 52%, 50.2% respectively and the mean compliance came out to be 58.9%. (p<0.05). Most common cause cited for non-compliance is that the HCWs are too busy (38%) followed by out of products(19%), forget(11%),unsure of need(11%),products not in convenient location (11%).

Conclusion: The overall compliance rate for hand hygiene by HCWs was 58.9%.The setting wise compliance rate being 74.2%, 52% and 50.2% in the OPD,Ward and  Emergency respectively.

Keywords: Hand hygiene protocols, health care workers, hospital acquired infections.