Hand Hygiene Matters:
Ensuring Patient Safety in
Surgical Care
Presented By: Sravani Appala
Nikikumari Patel
Arjun Tandon
Oluwaseun Babalola
Ohanwusi Ogechi
Maria Wilson
Our Aim Today
To persuade staffs, physicians and all who work in and out of the
Surgical unit to follow proper hand hygiene.
To get a better understanding of why, healthcare professionals must
not
• Display poor personal hygiene
• Wear stoned rings, bracelets or wristwatch.
• Have long, unclean nails, or wear any form of artificial nail
attachments.
What is Hand
Hygiene?
• Hand hygiene involves cleansing one's hands by removing visible
soil and transient bacteria while maintaining skin integrity.
• It is an effective technique for preventing healthcare-associated
infections (HAIs) and limiting the spread of germs, especially
antibiotic-resistant organisms (ARO).
• Hand hygiene is mandatory for healthcare providers,
recommended in national and international infection control
guidelines, and a basic expectation for patients and their families.
Every individual • Transient bacteria colonize skin's upper layers and can
carry bacteria on be obtained through direct contact with clients,
patients, healthcare providers, contaminated
their skin. These equipment, or the environment. They can be easily
transmitted to people or objects, making them a
are categorised common source of human-assisted infections (HAIs).
as either • Resident bacteria live in deeper layers of skin and are
more difficult to remove. These bacteria do not typically
transitory or cause HAIs and can be beneficial to skin health.
resident bacteria.
Because we have the facts!
To prove just how much danger,
we are putting our patients lives
in, by refusing to make these small
lifestyle changes because hand
hygiene is critical to reducing the
risk of health care-associated
infections in patients.
Let’s talk about numbers
• In 2021/2022, Health Quality Ontario reported a 45.6% compliance rate for hand
washing, whereas Sault Area Hospital achieved 78.11% before and 89.35% after
patient environment interaction.
• A report on patient safety indicators at Sault Area Hospital stated that hand
hygiene compliance is still lower than “desirable”.
• These findings suggest that healthcare workers at Sault Area Hospital need to be
reminded to follow proper hand hygiene practices, especially before having
contact with patients.
Is Hand Hygiene Necessary ?
Surgical units with poor compliance of hand hygiene exhibit healthcare-associated
infections, including:
• Central line-associated bloodstream infections
• Catheter-associated urinary tract infections
• Surgical site infections
These infections can lead to :
• Prolong hospitalisation
• Death
• Poor patient outcome
• Increases the cost of providing healthcare.
• Increases waiting time for surgeries
So, who is most at
risk?
According to the evidence, the risk
groups are:
• Neonates
• ICU patients
• Post surgical patients
• Immunocompromised patients
How can we stop surgical site
infections?
• Hand washing practices prevent the spread of
surgical site infections and other healthcare
associated infections.
• Hands must be washed for atleast 20-25
seconds
• Even intact skin of patients and healthcare staff
can be colonised with disease causing bacteria
Clean hands, Safe hands
Surgical Hand Hygiene / Antisepsis
Hand hygiene procedures include the use of alcohol-based hand
rubs (containing 60%–95% alcohol) and hand washing with soap and
water. Before putting on sterile surgeon's gloves for surgical operations,
do a surgical hand scrub.
The main steps of surgical hand
hygiene procedures are:
Use Open Open Scrub Rinse Wear
Use alcohol- Open the Open the Scrub the Rinse Wear
based hand surgical brush water with hands and thoroughly sterilised
rubs or soap and embed it sensors and forearms up and dry with surgical
and water to in an place the to the elbow sterile towels. gloves.
clean the antiseptic hands under with the
hands before solution. the tap with antiseptic
the surgical the fingers up solution for
scrub. and the one minute.
elbows down.
Hand Wash Techniques
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oETkTtvgow
How to Hand Rub
https://youtu.be/sDUJ4CAYhpA
Steps towards better hand hygiene
• Display of hand hygiene posters and audiovisuals motivating hand hygiene.
• Selection of products used for hand hygiene
• Choosing a champion for hand hygiene.
• Housekeepers are responsible for checking, cleaning and refilling
dispensers.
• Provide disposal scrubbers.
• Unexpected visits from infection control officers.
• Encouraging coworkers to practice proper hand hygiene.
• Hand hygiene compliance, Monitoring and feedback.
References:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2019. Hand Hygiene. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/infectioncontrol/faqs/hand-hygiene.html.
Hand Hygiene. Sault Area Hospital. [accessed 2023 Jul 23].
https://sah.on.ca/patients/quality-safety/patient-safety-indicators/hand-hygiene/
Hand Washing in Ontario Hospitals by Hospital Care Providers – Health Quality Ontario.
(n.d.). Www.hqontario.ca.
https://www.hqontario.ca/System-Performance/Hospital-Patient-Safety/Hand-washing-in-
Ontario-hospitals-by-hospital-care-providers
Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee (PIDAC). Best Practices for Hand
Hygiene in All Health Care Settings, 4th edition April 2014. Available from:
http://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/Documents/B/2014/bp-hand-hygiene.pdf?re
v=db9916b9af7849cbb37ea6ca9a358e29&sc_lang=en
(2018). Vmcdn.ca.
https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/sootoday/images/health/sault-area-hospital/
20190117-sault-area-hospital-winter-file-photo-dt.jpg
