Every year, the World Health Organization (WHO) celebrates 5th May as World Hand Hygiene Day. This year also, PGIMER Chandigarh celebrated this special occasion on a big scale in the form of a hand hygiene week from 1st to 5th May. The hand hygiene week celebration was spearheaded by the Hospital Infection Control Committee, which is a multi-disciplinary committee consisting of doctors, nurses, hospital administrators and nursing administrators. A number of activities were planned by the Hospital Infection control committee of PGI to raise awareness about the need for hand hygiene in hospitals.
The World Health Organization had launched a global campaign called “Clean Care is Safer Care” more than a decade ago with the intention of making the cleaning of hands a social epidemic. The theme for the 2018 World Hand Hygiene Day is “It’s in your hands: Prevent sepsis in healthcare”.
Patients get admitted to a hospital for the treatment of their diseases. Unfortunately, many of them acquire what are called “healthcare associated infections” or nosocomial infections during their hospital stay. These infections are acquired from the hospital environment and are often attributed to germs that are spread by the unclean hands of hospital personnel. Healthcare associated infections are a worldwide problem and result in huge expenses on expensive antibiotics, unnecessary tests, prolongation of hospital stay and increase in mortality.
If all doctors, nurses, hospital staff and relatives of patients were to meticulously clean their hands before and after touching each and every patient on every occasion it would result in a marked decrease in hospital-acquired infections and the saving of thousands of lives. There are 2 simple methods for cleaning hands- either apply a 70% alcohol-based handrub for 20 to 30 seconds or wash visibly soiled hands with soap and running water for 40 to 60 seconds.
The activities that were conducted in PGIMER were as follows:
- Posters demonstrating the importance of hand hygiene, the moments when hand hygiene should be performed and the steps for hand washing or application of alcohol-based hand rubs were displayed at prominent places all over the hospital.
- A massive photo campaign was carried out in PGI and healthcare workers took pledges to improve hand hygiene in their individual settings
- Teams of infection control nurses visited the various buildings of PGIMER along with teaching aids and demonstrated the correct hand hygiene technique to all employees, patients and their relatives entering these areas
- A continuing medical education (CME) workshop on hand hygiene was organized for doctors and nurses of PGI in the Bhargava Auditorium
- Messages on hand hygiene were played on television sets in all intensive care unit (ICU) waiting halls and Outpatient Department (OPD) waiting areas
- Group SMS messages related to hand hygiene were regularly sent to all PGI mobile phone numbers reminding hospital staff to comply with hand hygiene regulations
- The ICU whose doctors and nurses show the highest compliance to hand hygiene measures were awarded certificates of appreciation by Director PGI and the Medical Superintendent along with the Chairperson of the Infection control Committee and the Deputy Director of Administration
Globally, it is a well-recognized fact that despite the simplicity of the hand hygiene measures, hospital personnel and patient’s relatives often fail to follow these measures before and after every contact with the patient and the patient’s immediate surroundings. Motivating health care personnel to make hand hygiene a subconscious habit is a major challenge. The word “epidemic” is often used in a negative sense to convey a spread of disease. However, the World Health Organization wishes to make “hand hygiene” a “social epidemic” in a positive sense, in which it is the habit of cleaning hands rather than germs which will spread from one person to another.
PGIMER will be following up the hand hygiene week celebrations of 2018 with year-round educational activities related to hand hygiene awareness. Annual celebrations are planned every year in this massive global effort to prevent an entirely preventable disease. It is hoped that with this much-needed focus on hand hygiene, healthcare acquired infection rates will drop in PGI and in Chandigarh.
