In today's acute care facilities, compliance with recommended hand hygiene practices has been universally low.  Why?  Most commonly and simply due to demanding workloads and the intensity of patient care.

A recent comparison of 34 different handwashing compliance studies in acute care settings (can you believe someone has that much time on their hands???) revealed that HCW's (health care workers) washed their hands only 40% of the time.

The average 62 seconds required for a nurse to leave a patient's bedside, go to a sink and wash their hands before attending the next patient has been identified as a deterrent to frequent handwashing.

What to do about it?
Provide easy access to hand hygiene materials.  These studies have also shown that the accessibility to hand hygiene stations has directly impacted the nurses' compliance with proper hand hygiene. 

What's more, it has been proven that increased hand hygiene compliance results in a decrease in hospital-related infection rates.

The CDC recommends that HCW's are provided with readily accessible, alcohol-based hand sanitizers in the following locations:

• entrance to patients' rooms
• patient's bedside
• pocket-sized containers to be carried by HCW's
• other convenient locations