Five steps to 5 May 2012 - What's YOUR plan?
# 6316
Tomorrow, May 5th, is being promoted by the World Health Organization as global CLEAN YOUR HANDS DAY - to encourage HCWs (Healthcare workers) to improve and sustain hand hygiene practices around the world.
While exact numbers are unknown, it is estimated that tens . . . perhaps hundreds of millions of people around the world are adversely affected by what are largely preventable health care-associated infections (HCAI) each year.
Most of these infections could be prevented by HCWs maintaining good hand hygiene – cleaning their hands properly, and at the appropriate time.
Last year we saw the introduction of the 5 moments for hand hygiene campaign.
This from the World Health Organization.
WHO Save lives: clean your hands global annual campaign
Date: 5 May 2012
Each year, hundreds of millions of patients all around the world are affected by health care-associated infections (HCAI). Although HCAI is the most frequent adverse event in health care, its true global burden has been unknown because of the difficulty in gathering reliable data. However, recent work by WHO and others highlights that developing countries are more affected. Most health care-associated infections are preventable through good hand hygiene – health-care workers cleaning hands, at the right times and in the right way.
The Save Lives: clean your hands global annual campaign, launched in 2009, is a day in which WHO is committed to 'bringing people together to improve and sustain hand hygiene'. Overall it is an opportunity to:
- be part of a global movement to improve hand hygiene and receive acknowledgement of this from WHO;
- be one of the leaders helping to prevent HCAI in your country; subsequently saving lives;
- receive support for moving from commitment to action at the point of patient care;
- share your knowledge and successes with others;
- join a network of countries that have already committed to sustained hand hygiene campaigning; and
- demonstrate your commitment to making patient safety a priority.
Related links
Lest anyone think that this is just a problem in developing countries, the CDC reports that every year about 2 million Americans get a hospital associated infection (HAI), and as many as 100,000 people die each year as a result.
A point driven home repeatedly by Maryn McKenna in her book, Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA which I reviewed here.
Remarkably, Maryn points out that 50% of health care workers fail to consistently wash their hands between patients.
Whether you work in a healthcare setting or not, today would be a good day to visit the CDC’s hand hygiene website, where you will find many resources, including a link to a new iPad/iPhone application called iScrub.
To round out this entry, some oldies but goodies from the AFD archives.
Doing The Hand Jive
Referral: Maryn McKenna On Hand Hygiene
Gonna Wash Those Germs Right Off Of My Hands
A collection of Hand Washing posters can be found at:
http://www.cdc.gov/handhygiene/Resources.html
And lastly, a return engagement by that consummate entertainer, one that Maryn McKenna introduced me to a few years ago . . . the one you all know and love . . give it up for GERMY, in the award winning all singing, all dancing production of Soapacabana!
