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SG-APSIC1055: Hand hygiene challenges among the ancillary team during the COVID-19 pandemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2023

Qinnan Liu
Affiliation:
Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
Kamini Devi
Affiliation:
D/O Magesparan, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
Ismail Bin Sazali
Affiliation:
Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
Tan Kwee Yuen
Affiliation:
Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
Shaiful Bahri Maroni
Affiliation:
Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
King Richard Jay Ganotisi
Affiliation:
Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
Quek Bak Siang
Affiliation:
Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
Ling Moi Lin
Affiliation:
Singapore General Hospital, Singapore

Abstract

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Objectives: Ancillary staff members perform operational support functions and play an active role in enhancing the patient care experience. Infection prevention practices among ancillary staff play a critical role in preventing transmission of microorganisms, which ensures the safety of patients. Low hand hygiene compliance was found among porters in a cross-institutional hand hygiene audit in 2021. A quality improvement team was formed to improve hand hygiene compliance, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A focus-group discussion and survey were conducted to understand hand hygiene knowledge and challenges among porters. Using the findings, the team initiated Glo–germ education tools, pocket alcohol hand-rub agents, pocket moisturizer, poster display, and a toolbox messaging system via conversion of group roll call to satellite-area roll call. Respective satellite teams were sent hand hygiene reminders, and prompt corrective action was taken following noncompliance events. Analytic comparisons of pre- and postsurvey data were performed using the χ2 test, and P < .05 was regarded as statistically significant. Results: In total, 572 ancillary staff participated in the survey. Knowledge of hand hygiene practices improved significantly following the interventions, as shown in the comparison of pre- and postintervention results: knowledge of the hand hygiene steps (P < .001), knowledge of the duration of hand rub (P < .001), and knowledge of duration of handwashing (P < .001). Also, 295 staff members (97.68%) stated that implementation measures increased their awareness of the importance of hand hygiene. Moreover, the hand hygiene compliance rate improved from 77.8% to 100%. There were no significant differences related to sex (P = .089), age group (P = .355), years of working (P = .359), education level (P = .268), or difficulty in reading English (P = .906). Conclusions: Evaluating staff hand hygiene knowledge and understanding the challenges faced among porters helped toward the development of appropriate interventions and assurance of success in project.

Type
Hand Hygiene
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America