Improving hand-washing performance - a crossover study of hand-washing in the orthopaedic department.

Introduction: Effective hand-washing is essential for reducing the spread of infection in hospitals. We aimed to evaluate hand-washing performance of hospital personnel and to determine if this could be improved by education.

Materials And Methods: A total of 55 personnel working in the orthopaedic department were asked to clean their hands using an alcohol gel containing a clear fluorescent substance.

One plunge or two?--hand disinfection with alcohol gel.

Objective: To compare health care workers' hand surface coverage using two different volumes of alcohol gel for hand disinfection.

Participants: and methods. A total of 84 members of staff in our hospital were studied.