In 2006-2007 the Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC) conducted the successful Clean Hands Save Lives campaign in all NSW public hospitals. During the campaign, healthcare workers improved their use of alcohol-based hand rub and hand washing. However we can still improve.

Hand Hygiene Initiative

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health (ACSQHC) has developed a program for achieving high compliance with hand hygiene as defined by World Health Organization (WHO) standards. The full implementation of this program across all public and private hospitals is considered the best opportunity to achieve a substantial reduction in healthcare associated infections across the country.

This will not only save lives but will also reduce costs. The ACSQHC has retained Hand Hygiene Australia (HHA) to lead the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI) and in March 2009 the CEC commenced the implementation of the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI) in NSW.

The NHHI provides a clear, systematic and standardised approach to hand hygiene culture-change. The outcome measures for the program are:

1. Increase in Hand Hygiene compliance
2. Reduction in rates of Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB)

The goal is to make hand hygiene 'core business' for all healthcare workers.

5 Moments for Hand Hygiene

Simple steps by staff and visitors can help reduce the risk of infection to patients, including practicing hand hygiene:

1. Before touching a patient
2. Before a procedure
3. After a procedure
4. After touching a patient
5. After touching the patient's environment

These 5 points are known as the "5 Moments for Hand Hygiene" promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) - World Alliance for Patient Safety campaign - "Clean Care is Safer Care" launched in 2005. Australia is part of this international effort to improve hand hygiene.

Download the "5 moments for hand hygiene" screensaver below.

Key features of the Hand Hygiene Initiative

1. Auditing of Hand Hygiene compliance

   The audits are based on the 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene and will be collected three times each year. The audits focus on 'Moments for hand hygiene' conducted for individual patient care. The CEC and HHA provide the training to credential "Gold Standard" Assessors who will then be able to provide training for clinicians to undertake audits on the wards. The data collected from these audits will contribute to the national data collection and provide the ability to benchmark against other states/ territories and nations. Key staff, considered to be the "subject matter experts" eg Infection Control Practitioners and educators will be trained as "Gold Standard" Assessors. As this is part of a national program this credential is transferable and is considered a significant achievement.

2. Use of alcohol-based hand rub

   Alcohol based hand rub should be placed at the point of care eg the foot of the patient bed. Audits of product accessibility contribute to the improvement activities undertaken to assist improvement in hand hygiene compliance and will be submitted to the CEC periodically through the program.

3. Collection of SAB data

   The rate of Staph aureus bacteraemia (measured as a proportion of occupied bed days and of separations) is the key outcome measure of the initiative. This will include collection of information about antibiotic sensitivity and whether the infection was likely to have been hospital acquired.

4. Education of health care workers

   Over time, all healthcare workers should participate in an education program to improve knowledge about infection prevention and control. An e-learning package has been developed by HHA for this purpose. It is suggested that this program be incorporated into orientation and mandatory training for existing staff.

Screensaver: 5 moments for hand hygiene

Remind yourself and others of these five simple points to better hand hygiene everytime you stop using your computer!

• Download the "5 moments for hand hygiene" screensaver for Windows/PC - ZIP ~1.8mb

Download Instructions

1. Click the "ZIP ~1.8mb" link above to download the screensaver to your hard drive
2. Extract the .exe file from the .zip archive
3. Double-click the .exe file and "Install" on your "C:\WINDOWS\" drive.

Messages on Hold

As part of the Clinical Excellence Commission's strategy to encourage hand hygiene, we've created "messages on hold" available for downloading by hospital teams across NSW. Expect to hear them soon if you phone a hospital near you.

• Female voice - MP3 ~332kb
• Male voice - MP3 ~368kb
• Male and female voice - MP3 ~321kb

Please, feel free, even if you don't work in the health system, to use the material. The message is simple. Clean your hands. That saves lives.

Posters and Materials

Posters: Talking Walls

Download A4 PDFs of the Clean Hands Save Lives Talking Wall posters below or request A3 hard copies of the posters by email - cpip@cec.health.nsw.gov.au.

	Get with the program Poster 1 - PDF ~120kb		Patients need our extra assurance... Poster 6 - PDF ~115kb
	To help, we need a little squirt Poster 2 - PDF ~130kb		Got a spare 20 seconds to save a life? Poster 7 - PDF ~95kb
	What's your personal best? Poster 3 - PDF ~205kb		Getting into a lather at work? Poster 8 - PDF ~175kb
	Whatever else you handle in your job, handle some cleanser too Poster 4 - PDF ~115kb		What's the secret to reducing infections in hospitals? Poster 9 - PDF ~150kb
	Before you put your gloves on... Poster 5 - PDF ~125kb		The most unlikely patients... Poster 10 - PDF ~105kb

Patient/Visitors Targeted Resources

Brochure

Requests for the following patient/visitor brochure may be made via email - cpip@cec.health.nsw.gov.au.

• What you need to know about hand hygiene

Posters

• Of course it's OK to tell him... - PDF ~140kb
• Patients, Visitors, Staff. Please clean your hands - PDF ~200kb

Health Professionals

Documents

Three Two One Bugs Off! Implementation Guide - PDF ~2.60mb
This document is intended to be a guide to implementing the Hand Hygiene Campaign for NSW Health. It has been designed to allow for some adaptation by the Area Health Service Hand Hygiene Project Officers to reflect local circumstances.

Tools

Hand Hygiene and Skin Sensitivity Package - PDF ~548kb

Fact sheets - for patients and visitors

"Patients and Visitors: What you need to know about hand hygiene" available in:-

• English - PDF ~108kb
• Arabic - PDF ~145kb
• Chinese - PDF ~271kb
• Croation - PDF ~127kb
• Dinka - PDF ~133kb
• Filipino - PDF ~124kb
• Greek - PDF ~131kb
• Hindi - PDF ~1.03mb
• Indonesian - PDF ~125kb
• Italian - PDF ~126kb
• Japanese - PDF ~201kb
• Khmer - PDF ~160kb
• Korean - PDF ~260kb
• Kurdish - PDF ~144kb
• Macedonian - PDF ~133kb
• Persian - PDF ~141kb
• Portuguese - PDF ~126kb
• Russian - PDF ~135kb
• Serbian - PDF ~133kb
• Spanish - PDF ~126kb
• Tamil - PDF ~136kb
• Turkish - PDF ~129kb
• Vietnamese - PDF ~134kb

Information & Fact Sheets

Hand Hygiene Fact Sheets

• Frequently asked questions about Hand Hygiene - PDF ~156kb
• Alcohol Hand Rubs & Hand Hygiene - PDF ~179kb
• Gloves & Hand Hygiene - PDF ~113kb
• Hand Hygiene & Skin Sensitivity - PDF ~115kb
• Hand Hygiene When & How - PDF ~123kb
• Hand Hygiene with Artificial Nails & Wrist Jewellery - PDF ~115kb

WHO Guidelines

Australia committed to address health care associated infections.

On 10 November 2006, Australia pledged their commitment to address healthcare associated infections through actions such as promoting understanding of the importance of improving hand hygiene among health care providers.

• Further information on countries and regions committed to address health care-associated infection
• View the pledge - PDF ~259kb
• WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care (Advanced Draft) - PDF ~3.17mb

Hazardous Substances and Dangerous Goods Guidelines

Guideline required for storage of alcohol hand products:-

• Hazardous Substances and Dangerous Goods in NSW Health - Guidelines for Safe Use - PDF ~1.3mb

Newsletters

Keep up to date with the National Hand Hygiene Initiative in NSW with our newsletters.

• April 2010 - PDF ~596kb | TXT ~4kb
• February 2010 - PDF ~216kb | TXT ~4kb
• December 2009 - PDF ~272kb | TXT ~4kb
• November 2009 - PDF ~208kb | TXT ~4kb

ABC News Radio

Doctors having difficulty keeping their hands clean - and are muddying their reputation in the process... Dr Annette Pantle talks to Cathy Bell from ABC News Radio. - Published, October 19 2009

• Read the transcript - PDF ~16kb

World Hand Hygiene Day

Global Call for Action on Hand Hygiene Day

Professor Cliff Hughes AO, CEO of the Clinical Excellence Commission gives his simple message to mark Global Call for Action on Hand Hygiene Day, 2009. - Published, May 5 2009

• Global Call for Action on Hand Hygiene Day, 2009

• NSW Health Infection Control home page