However, there is a crucial hurdle to overcome to make this happen; the widespread lack of understanding of which hygiene measures to perform and when.
In fact, to prevent nosocomial infections, such as bloodstream or urinary tract infections, hygiene measures need to be implemented consistently.
To improve patient protection there need to be standardised hygiene working practices to help employees treating and nursing patients.
If those standards are followed throughout every stage of patient contact, patient safety can be increased.
Holistic hygiene measures would incorporate all the activities required to minimise a specific infection risk including, for instance: hand hygiene, skin antisepsis, surface disinfection, and the use of sterile dressings. Not only would these improve top of mind awareness but standards and learnings could also be transferred from one segment to the other, heightening hygiene quality standards across the board.
The BODE SCIENCE CENTER, a scientific centre of excellence for hygiene and infection protection, worked with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) to analyse how this innovative holistic approach could close gaps within routine patient care activity .
Rather than looking at hand disinfection in isolation, they focused on the whole process of a specific nursing/medical activity considering every action important for the prevention of patient infections. As part of the study they identified the optimal operating procedure, from a patient infection control point of view, for inserting a peripheral venous catheter (PVC) based on three evidence-based guidelines. Having trained employees on this procedure, they found that compliance increased for almost all steps relevant to patient safety.
