Resource Links

Hand Hygiene Programs

Canada

Hand Washing Public Service Campaign, College of Registered Nurses, Manitoba
Just Clean Your Hands Campaign, Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, Ontario
Clean Hands for Life (pdf), Vancouver Coastal Health Authority/Providence Health Care

Australia

Debug Infection Prevention Program, Austin Health, Melbourne, Australia
Hand Hygiene Project, The Victorian Quality Council, Victoria, Australia

Switzerland

Hopisafe.ch, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genêva (University of Geneva Hospitals)

United Kingdom

Clean Your Hands Campaign, National Patient Safety Agency
Wipe it out, The Royal College of Nursing, UK

United States

Clean Hands Save Lives!, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention & The Clean Hands Coalition
Infection: Don't Pass It On, United States Department of Veteran Affairs
Hand Hygiene Resource Center, St. Raphael Healthcare system and Dr. John Boyce, New Haven, Connecticut

International

Clean care is Safer Care, World Health Organization
Home Hygiene, International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene (IFH)

Scholarly Literature

Boyce JM. It is time for action: improving hand hygiene in hospitals. Ann Intern Med 1999; 130:153 5.
An editorial outlining the factors involved in poor hand hygiene compliance and recommended strategies for increasing adherence.
Gould DJ, Chudleigh JH, Moralejo D, Drey N. Interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance in patient care. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2007, Issue 2.
The purpose of this review was to identify the strategies that had been successful in increasing hand hygiene compliance over time and its effect on the occurrence of health care infections.
Hilburn J, Hammond BS, Fendler EJ, Groziak PA. Use of alcohol hand sanitizer as an infection control strategy in an acute care facility. Am J Infect Control. 2003 Apr;31(2):109-16.
Supports the use of alcohol based hand sanitizer by correlating it’s usage to decreased infection rates.
Larson E. Skin hygiene and infection prevention: more of the same or different approaches? Clin Infect Dis. 1999 Nov;29(5):1287-94.
The purpose of this article is to review research indicating a link between hand hygiene and nosocomial infections and the effects of hand care practices on skin integrity. Clinical practice changes recommended include the use of waterless alcohol-based products and moisturizers.
Pittet D. Improving compliance with hand hygiene in hospitals. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. 2000; 21(6):381-386.
A review of the reasons for poor compliance with hand washing amongst hospital staff with recommendations of a multimodal, multidisciplinary approach at the individual, group, and institutional levels.
Pittet D. Improving adherence to hand hygiene practice: a multidisciplinary approach. Emerg Infect Dis. 2001 Mar-Apr;7(2):234-40.
Alcohol- based hand rubs may be better than traditional hand washing as they require less time, act faster, are less irritating, and contribute to sustained improvement in compliance associated with decreased infection rates. This article reviews barriers to appropriate hand hygiene and risk factors for noncompliance and proposes strategies for promoting hand hygiene.
“More Evidence That hand Hygiene Really Works”, Freakonomics, December 28, 2006
http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/2006/12/28/more-evidence-that-hand-washing-
really-works/
This article addresses some supporting evidence of hand hygiene’s impact on catheter infections.

Additional Links (guidelines, standards, educational materials, tools, etc.)

Community and Hospital Infection Control Association Canada (CHICA), information about hand hygiene with exceptional links and resources including guidelines, standards, research, publications, educational and teaching aids.
Infection Control Today, magazine website and has an entire section dedicated to hand hygiene.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) - “How-to-Guide” for improving hand hygiene
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) – Improvement report on improving hang hygiene practice with six sigma