Variability in the Duration and Thoroughness of Hand Hygiene

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Joel M. Mumma, Georgia Institute of Technology; Francis T. Durso, Georgia Institute of Technology; Lisa M. Casanova, Georgia State University; Kimberly Erukunuakpor, Georgia State University; Colleen S Kraft, Emory University; Susan M Ray, Emory University; Andi L Shane, Emory University; Victoria L. Walsh, Emory University; Puja Y. Shah, Emory University; Craig Zimring, Georgia Institute of Technology; Jennifer DuBose, Georgia Institute of Technology; Jesse Thomas Jacob, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2019-10-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP): Policy B - Oxford Open Option C
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciz612
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Clinical Infectious Diseases
• ISSN: 1058-4838
• Volume: 69
• Issue: Supplement_3
• Start Page: S221
• End Page: S223
• Grant/Funding Information: This article appears as part of the supplement “Personal Protective Equipment for Preventing Contact Transmission of Pathogens: Innovations from CDC’s Prevention Epicenters Program,” sponsored by the CDC’s Prevention Epicenters Program.; This work was supported by the Prevention Epicenters Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (award U54CK000164).; Emory University’s participation was supported in part by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (award UL1TR000454; Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute).
• Keywords: hand hygiene; serious communicable disease; Science & Technology; Microbiology; Infectious Diseases; Immunology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; human factors engineering; personal protective equipment
• Research Categories: Biology, Microbiology; Health Sciences, Immunology

Abstract

We observed 354 hand hygiene instances across 41 healthcare workers doffing personal protective equipment at 4 hospital-based biocontainment units. We measured the duration and thoroughness of each hand hygiene instance. Both parameters varied substantially, with systematic differences between hospitals and differences between healthcare workers accounting for much of the variance.