In 2010, Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System implemented a Joint Commission tool to improve hand hygiene in 12 of its hospitals. A study published in the January issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety shows the tool yielded promising results.
The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare's web-based targeted solutions tool for improving hand hygiene allowed MHHS to measure compliance rates, identify reasons for noncompliance, implement tested interventions provided by the tool and sustain the improvements.
Results of the study show MHHS' hand hygiene compliance rate increased from the baseline of 58.1 percent from October 2010 to May 2011, to 84.4 percent during the "improve phase" from June 2011 to November 2012. Compliance rates continued to grow during the "control phase," from December 2012 to December 2014, to 94.7 percent, and during the final 12 months of the study to 95.6 percent.
Also, in association with the increase in hand hygiene compliance, central line-associated blood stream infections decreased 49 percent and ventilator-associated pneumonia rates decreased 45 percent during the course of the study.
To read more about the Joint Commission tool and the study findings, click here.
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