Implementation of directly observed patient hand hygiene for hospitalized patients by hand hygiene ambassadors in Hong Kong.

Background: The importance of compliance with hand hygiene by patients is increasingly recognized to prevent health care-associated infections.

Methods: This descriptive study observed the effects of an education campaign, targeted to increase patients' self-initiated hand hygiene, and a hand hygiene ambassador-initiated directly observed hand hygiene program on patients' hand hygiene compliance in a university-affiliated hospital.

Results: The overall audited compliance of patients' self-initiated hand hygiene was only 37.

Effect of proactive infection control measures on benchmarked rate of hospital outbreaks: An analysis of public hospitals in Hong Kong over 5 years.

Background: Hospital outbreaks of epidemiologically important pathogens are usually caused by lapses in infection control measures and result in increased morbidity, mortality, and cost. However, there is no benchmark to compare the occurrence of hospital outbreaks across hospitals.

Methods: We implemented proactive infection control measures with an emphasis on timely education of health care workers and hospitalized patients at Queen Mary Hospital, a teaching hospital.

Introduction of an electronic monitoring system for monitoring compliance with Moments 1 and 4 of the WHO "My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene" methodology.

Background: MedSense is an electronic hand hygiene compliance monitoring system that provides Infection Control Practitioners with continuous access to hand hygiene compliance information by monitoring Moments 1 and 4 of the WHO "My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene" guidelines. Unlike previous electronic monitoring systems, MedSense operates in open cubicles with multiple beds and does not disrupt existing workflows.

Methods: This study was conducted in a 6-bed neurosurgical intensive care unit with technical development and evaluation phases.