The infection prevention team at Pittsburgh-based UPMC Presbyterian Hospital has increased clinical staff hand washing and sanitizing compliance to nearly 100 percent through education and accountability measures.
The initiative, called Just Culture at UPMC Presbyterian, was implemented in June 2012. The program includes education, videos, internal newsletter articles, posters and verbal reminders about hand hygiene. Through the program, healthcare personnel are held accountable for disregard of patient safety, including hand hygiene. Staff who don't wash their hands are warned and then progress through a structure of disciplinary actions if they continue to disregard hand hygiene.
"Hand hygiene can be increased with educational campaigns, but we've found that these gains can only be sustained when a health system makes it unacceptable to be lax on hand-washing," Ashley Querry, UPMC Presbyterian's infection prevention coordinator, said.
Within four months of launching the Just Culture initiative, hand hygiene compliance at the hospital improved from 70 percent to 99 percent. The hospital has maintained the high compliance rate through re-education and an overall cultural shift toward accountability.
The techniques used at UPMC Presbyterian will be presented at ID Week 2014.