Improving Hand Hygiene Compliance at the Point of Care

Hand hygiene has clearly been established as the No. 1 way to prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2002 Hand Hygiene Guideline and the World Health Organization's 2009 Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Healthcare clearly define when healthcare workers should clean their hands. It could be difficult to implement these hand hygiene opportunities if alcohol-based hand rub is not conveniently located within reach for the healthcare worker. Point-of-care hand hygiene provides a solution to this problem and potentially helps reduce HAIs. This whitepaper defines point-of-care hand hygiene and provides rationale for why it should be considered an important part of the healthcare hand hygiene program.

• Review the opportunities for hand hygiene in the patient-care environment.
• Discuss the importance of hand hygiene-product accessibility.
• Explore the principles associated with point-of-care hand hygiene.