Logo Image
|Articles|July 2, 2013

Eliminating Mandatory Glove Use in Contact with Isolated Patients Increases Hand Hygiene Compliance

The requirement to wear gloves when caring for patients on contact precautions may cause personnel to neglect hand hygiene before aseptic procedures, thereby increasing infection transmission. Cusini et al. (2013) sought to assess the compliance with hand hygiene before and after eliminating mandatory glove use for patients on contact precautions.

The researchers assessed hand hygiene compliance of HCW taking care of 50 adult patients colonized with MDR microorganisms before (2009) and six months after (2012) eliminating the mandatory wearing of gloves. This policy change was implemented by the infection control team and communicated to all hospital floors. Along with this policy change, we routinely provided hand hygiene training to HCW on all floors. Hand hygiene observation was performed by two trained infection control nurses during routine care using a standardized questionnaire.

Cusini et al. (2013) observed 426 hand hygiene indications before the policy change and 492 six months after policy change. Compared to 2009, they observed a significantly higher compliance with hand hygiene in patients colonized with MDR microorganisms in 2012 [85.4%, (95% CI 82.2-88.5) versus 51.9 %, (95% CI 47.1-56.6); p< 0.001]. In particular, compliance improved before performing invasive procedures: [72.0% (95%CI 61.6-82.4) vs. 23.9% (95%CI 14.8-32.9); p< 0.001] , and before patient contact [76.7% (95%CI 68.9-84.5) vs. 32.3 (95%CI 24.0-40.5); p<0.001]. Hand hygiene compliance after patient contact remained high [93.5% (95%CI 89.2-97.9) in 2012 vs. 94.3% (95%CI 89.8.2-98.8) in 2009; NS]. During the same period, they observed a smaller increase in hand hygiene compliance for the entire hospital (17.5% hospital-wide versus 33.5% in patients on contact precautions).

The researchers concluded that eliminating mandatory glove use in contact with isolated patients increased hand hygiene compliance, particularly before invasive procedures and before patient contacts. Glove use may cause healthcare workers to bypass hand hygiene. The potential impact on the risk of MDR organism transmission should be determined next.

Reference: Cusini A, Nydegger D, Löhri T, Mühlemann K and Marschall J. Oral presentation O004 at 2nd International Conference on Prevention and Infection Control (ICPIC 2013): Improved hand hygiene compliance after eliminating mandatory glove use for patients on contact precautions. Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control 2013, 2(Suppl 1):O4 doi:10.1186/2047-2994-2-S1-O4

Related to this article

View more
A group of students raising their hands in class during a lecture (Adobe Stock 292282454 by Mediteraneo
Once a Teacher, Always a Teacher: Why Infection Prevention Is Education
How do you celebrate an infection that never happened? That's one of the unusual challenges infection preventionists share with teachers. Both can spend their careers changing outcomes they may never see. Both educate people who don't always want to listen. Both are second-guessed. Both face burnout. And both must somehow keep remembering why they started.
Read more
Infection preventionists in full PPE with children in DRC. (Image credit: author with AI)
Chasing the Bundibugyo Outbreak: How Static Numbers Hide a Moving Epidemic
Nearly 4 months into the DRC's Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak, some indicators suggest transmission may be slowing. But shifting hotspots, treatment-center capacity problems, community deaths, and incomplete surveillance data show why national case totals alone cannot determine whether containment has been achieved.
Read more
Health care workers from the US speaking with other health care workers in DRC. (Image credit: author with AI)
What Outbreak Metrics Can and Cannot Tell Us About the Ebola DRC Response
Is the Ebola outbreak in the DRC getting better? The answer depends on which numbers you examine. Several important indicators are moving in the right direction, including slower case growth and a declining Rₜ. But major gaps remain in contact tracing, testing, community deaths, safe burial coverage, and treatment capacity in some of the hardest-hit areas. ICT takes a deeper look at the latest outbreak data and why the numbers suggest cautious optimism, not victory.
Read more
Dyan Troxell, MSN, RN, director of clinical education at HandCraft Linen Services; J.J. Odom, MBA, CHESP, CMIP, T-CHEST, university director of buildings and grounds for UConn Health and chair-elect of the AHE Board; and Jenna Rivers, MPH, CPH, CIC, manager of infection prevention and control at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida.
At AHE Exchange26: Building Safer, Smarter Reusable Linen Programs
At AHE Exchange 2026, ICT spoke with experts representing commercial laundry services, EVS, and infection prevention about the systems behind a successful reusable linen program. They discuss linen quality, reject rates, unnecessary waste, frontline education, data, PAR levels, infection prevention oversight, and why strong relationships between health care facilities and their laundry providers matter.
Read more