Investigation of individual nurses' relative hand hygiene performance using an anonymous automated electronic hand hygiene monitoring system and a nursing assignment schedule.

Background: We investigated whether an anonymous automated electronic monitoring system (EMS) could be used to compare hand hygiene (HH) performance of individual nurses.

Methods: Prospective observational cohort study. HH performance in 10 acute-care patient rooms was estimated through an EMS that anonymously measured HH events, and room entries and exits. The association between patient room's HH compliance and the nurse in charge of each room was investigated by comparing percentile rank distributions, and through a negative binomial model.

Results: Over 99 days, there were 38,596 HH events and 135,546 room entries and exits (global HH performance, 28%). For 10 of 54 (19%) nurses, the median HH percentile rank of the rooms to which they were assigned was higher than the group average (P < .001; range of percentiles, 64th to 85th). A lower median percentile was seen in 9/54 (17%) participants (P < .001; range of percentiles, 22nd to 39th). The negative binomial model confirmed this association and identified 15 of 54 high performers (range of adjusted incidence rate ratios [aIRR], 1.17-1.83) and 16 of 54 low performers (range of aIRR, 0.37-0.77).

Discussion And Conclusions: An association exists between a room's HH rate and its assigned nurse. This association could hold potential value for an individualized feedback strategy.