The most important way of preventing the spread of healthcare associated infection is by good hand hygiene. Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust expects all staff to clean their hands before and after every patient contact. This can be done either by washing hands with water and soap or using alcohol hand-rub. The Trust introduced alcohol hand-rub in 2001, and this should be found outside every ward and at the end of every bed.
The cleanyourhands campaign was launched by the National Patient Safety Agency following Patient Safety alert 04 (2nd September 2004). This programme is designed to improve hand hygiene compliance and reduce healthcare associated infections through three main strategies:
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Installation of alcohol–based hand rub at the point of care. At PHNT you can expect to find alcohol hand rub out side each ward and at the end of every bed.
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A poster campaign to raise awareness. At PHNT you will see posters issued from the Cleanyourhands team, posters designed by primary school children in our annual schools poster competition, and designed by PHNT staff in our annual poster competition. To further raise awareness of the importance of Hand Hygiene, talking posters frames have been installed throughout the hospital. The frames contain a poster and are triggered by a motion sensor that immediately plays an auto track.
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Patient leaflet which provides information on hospital-acquired infection and the importance of hand decontamination, which encourages patients to remind staff to clean their hands.
During the year, all wards areas are audited on a monthly basis. Each audit involves observation of the frequency and quality of hand hygiene in the clinical area. The Trust compliance has consistently improved with a minimum compliance of 95%. Over the past year the overall Trust compliance has achieved 98%.
This years hand hygiene campaign, supported by the World Health Organisation, is launching My 5 moments.
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Hand Hygiene Monthly Statistics