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Consumers Union Urges Hospitals To Disclose Handwashing Compliance Rates
By Allen Rathey
Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, is calling on hospitals nationwide to disclose their hand washing compliance rates.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers proper hand hygiene to be the single most important factor in protecting patients from hospital acquired infections, which kill nearly 100,000 Americans every year. Yet most hospitals fail to ensure that health care workers follow proper hand hygiene practices on a consistent basis.
“Clean hands save lives,” said Lisa McGiffert, Director of Consumers Union’s Stop Hospital Infections campaign (
www.StopHospitalInfections.org). “Unfortunately, most hospitals have a poor track record when it comes to making sure caregivers are protecting patients from infections by cleaning their hands properly.”
Numerous studies have documented that hand hygiene compliance rates in most hospitals are unacceptably low – usually below 50 percent. That means, on average, doctors, nurses and other health care workers are failing to clean their hands properly with over half of their patients. A recent survey by the Leapfrog Group found that only 35.6 percent of all hospitals have proper hand hygiene policies recommended by the CDC in place. The Leapfrog Group did not assess whether the hospitals were following their policies.
Research shows that bacteria causing infections is often transmitted by the unwashed hands of health care workers who have touched a patient colonized with bacteria
or a surface in the patient’s environment that is contaminated. Caregivers who leave the bedside of a colonized patient without following proper hand hygiene can carry hundreds of thousands of units of bacteria on their hands. Even if caregivers wear gloves while caring for such patients, they sometimes contaminate their hands when removing gloves covered by bacteria.
According to the largest hospital-wide survey of health care workers conducted on this subject, compliance with proper hand hygiene practices was lowest in intensive care units and during procedures that carry a high risk of bacterial contamination. Other studies have found a connection between poor hand hygiene and understaffing or overcrowding at hospitals.
“Patients expect hospital caregivers to have clean hands, but this expectation is not always met,” said McGiffert. “One way to restore patient confidence is for hospitals to come clean by disclosing their hand washing compliance rates. Almost every hospital in the country has conducted hand hygiene campaigns in the last few years and now it’s time for them to show us the results.”
Nearly two million patients develop infections while being treated for other conditions in the hospital every year. These patients require extra care and often end up staying longer in the hospital to recover, which adds billions of dollars to the health care bill paid by insurers, consumers, and taxpayers every year.
In a recent report based on data collected from its hospitals, Pennsylvania found that insurers paid nearly $46,000 more for patients with infections than for patients without infections. Dr. John A. Jernigan, Chief of Interventions and Evaluations at the CDC, has said that these infections result in up to $27.5 billion in additional hospital-related expenses annually.
To learn more about the CDC’s recommended hand hygiene policies for hospitals, see:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5116a1.htm To find out more about “Hospital Infection Prevention Week,” sponsored by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control, see:
http://www.apic.org
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About Allen Rathey
A 25-year veteran in the housekeeping and cleaning industry, Allen Rathey began his career by establishing a home and commercial cleaning service in the early 1980s. After 10 years of first-hand experience, he transitioned from cleaning to consulting, providing advice and marketing services through his communications company, now InstructionLink/JanTrain, Inc. (ILJT). ILJT helps a wide range of cleaning industry organizations from start-up businesses to Fortune 500 companies, develop credible marketing messages, medical and scientific advisory boards, scientific communications and related outreach. The goal? Refine and validate products and processes to produce better and healthier indoor environments, then effectively deliver best practice information to the public.
Rathey's passion for educating the marketplace about the life-enhancing, health and other benefits of effective cleaning and housekeeping, prompted him to start The Housekeeping Channel in 2004. The Housekeeping Channel provides consumers with better, faster and healthier housekeeping tips and in-depth information. The Housekeeping Channel's portfolio of best practice advice comes from a range of leading professionals, including cleaning experts, professional executive housekeepers and professional cleaning services, scientists and doctors, environmental specialists and organizational and time-management consultants. More than 50,000 unique visitors go to the Housekeeping Channel each month, many spending more than an hour per visit.
Rathey is also the president of The Healthy House Institute, an online resource for a better, safer indoor environments.
Allen has been tapped as a housekeeping expert by The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, BrandWeek Magazine, Real Simple, WebMD, and other national media. He has written articles for more than two-dozen international trade and consumer magazines.
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