Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol
November 2014
Objective: Healthcare worker hand hygiene is known to prevent healthcare-associated infections, but there are few data on patient hand hygiene despite the fact that nosocomial pathogens may be acquired by patients via their own unclean hands. The purpose of this study was to measure patient hand hygiene behavior in the hospital after visiting a bathroom, before eating, and on entering and leaving their rooms.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Background: The Hawthorne effect, or behaviour change due to awareness of being observed, is assumed to inflate hand hygiene compliance rates as measured by direct observation but there are limited data to support this.
Objective: To determine whether the presence of hand hygiene auditors was associated with an increase in hand hygiene events as measured by a real-time location system (RTLS).
Methods: The RTLS recorded all uses of alcohol-based hand rub and soap for 8 months in two units in an academic acute care hospital.
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