The following are hand hygiene patient safety tools geared toward patient education and involvement, compiled from Becker's Hospital Review and Becker's ASC Review.
1. The New York State Department of Health offers an educational brochure for patients to learn about Clostridium difficile and about how proper hand hygiene can reduce the risk of infection.
2. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an informational video that can be played in healthcare facilities' waiting rooms to emphasize the importance of hand hygiene.
3. The CDC, CDC Foundation and Kimberly-Clark present a hand hygiene brochure for patients outlining hand hygiene basics, including who should wash hands, why it is important, when hand hygiene protocol should be followed and which cleaning product (soap vs. alcohol-based hand sanitizer) should be used.
4. The CDC offers an educational video to show to patients that addresses the importance of hand hygiene in healthcare facilities and encourages patients to remind their providers to follow proper protocol. The video is available in both English and Spanish.
5. The Johns Hopkins Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care has created an observation card for patients to fill in when observing if their provider is following proper hand hygiene protocol.
6. Kimberly-Clark offers a patient-focused flyer outlining proper hand hygiene techniques.
7. A clinical team at Lakes Surgery Center in West Bloomfield, Mich., developed a hand hygiene flyer that can be included in a patient's discharge papers, explaining to patients how to properly practice hand hygiene at home before, for example, touching a wound or taking medication.
More Articles on Hand Hygiene:
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Study: Observing Others Improves Hand Hygiene Awareness in Medical Students