Proper hand hygiene is key to improving patient care, and ultimately, saving lives. In fact, studies show that hand hygiene compliance prevents up to 50 per cent of infections acquired during healthcare delivery. [1]
This month we celebrate World Hand Hygiene Day (WHHD), an initiative from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) that calls to action healthcare workers to promote best practices for hand hygiene compliance. The day, celebrated annually on May 5, brings visibility to an important cause critical to patient care and one that should be put into practice every day. This year’s theme for WHHD focused on the fifth component of WHO’s Multimodal Strategy for Hand Hygiene Compliance: creating an Institutional Safety Climate, or an organizational environment that prioritizes hand hygiene to achieve both patient and healthcare professionals’ safety on institutional and individual levels.
As a participant in the Private Organizations for Patient Safety (POPS) initiative facilitated by the WHO, Essity supports measures such as WHHD via Tork, its global leading professional hygiene brand, which has been a part of this collaboration since 2015.
Tork is celebrating WHHD this May by sharing information on innovative training tools, skincare solutions, and resources to encourage the development of hand hygiene role models and help institutions boost compliance via sustainable hygiene management solutions.
Engaging training and education
Proper hand hygiene supports better patient outcomes, but research commissioned by Tork found that 8 out of 10 healthcare professionals would like to improve their hand hygiene compliance. [2]By improving education programs for healthcare workers, organizations can improve hand hygiene compliance and encourage healthcare professionals to become hand hygiene role models.
To make hand hygiene training more engaging and efficient, Tork developed its award-winning Clean Hands Training in collaboration with behavioral scientists and world-leading experts to help promote safer healthcare environments. Available for desktop and VR (Virtual Reality), Tork Clean Hands Training is based on the WHO’s ‘My 5 Moments of Hand Hygiene’ and allows users to step into a virtual world where they can interact and train with the proper hand hygiene protocols in a realistic, fun environment. The free training, available in English and French, has been accessed almost 15,000 times since the end of 2019 and empowers healthcare professionals to achieve higher hand hygiene compliance.
Efficacious skincare solutions
Beyond training, Tork also supports healthcare organizations with skincare solutions designed for critical, fast-paced environments.
The Tork Alcohol Gel Hand Sanitizer is formulated with 70 per cent alcohol ideal for quick and efficacious hand sanitizing without the need for water. In addition to being effective, the product is Green Seal-certified, meaning it meets the rigorous performance, health, and environmental criteria in Green Seal’s environmental leadership standards.
Solutions like these help organizations achieve their sustainability initiatives and improve overall performance through sustainable hygiene management.
Turnkey hygiene tools
The right products must also be easily accessible. The placement of hygiene dispensers has a significant impact on compliance rates, so it is important to make sure they are correctly placed. [3] Tork offers evidence-based dispenser placement guides that are based on WHO’s ‘my 5 moments of hand hygiene’ and built around four areas commonly found in all healthcare facilities to support compliance.
In addition, prompting and reminding healthcare workers is another way to improve hand hygiene compliance in the long-term. Tork offers a customizable poster builder that allows you to easily refresh messaging and remind staff about the importance of hand hygiene while also boosting patient perception of your facility.
Tork sustainable hygiene solutions not only improve hand hygiene compliance on World Hand Hygiene Day, but every day. Learn more at TorkUSA.com/WorldHandHygieneDay.
[1] World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-hand-hygiene-day/2021/key-facts-and-figures
[2] Survey among 1017 healthcare professionals in five markets: United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany and Poland. The survey was conducted between 23 November to 7 December 2018 by United Minds on behalf of Tork and in collaboration with the panel provider CINT
[3] Boog, Matthijs C., Vicki Erasmus, Jitske M De Graaf, Elise (A) He Van Beeck, Marijke Melles, and Ed F Van Beeck. Assessing the Optimal Location for Alcohol-based Hand Rub Dispensers in a Patient Room in an Intensive Care Unit. BMC Infect Dis BMC Infectious Diseases 13.1 (2013): 510.
This post was sponspored by Weber Shandwick
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