Assessment of hand hygiene adherence using a web camera

Results Alcohol-based hand sanitizer were used 170L per 1,000 patients. Conventional observation by ward nurses indicated that compliance with hand hygiene before touching a patient was 77%. Direct observation with the web camera indicated that hand hygiene was required 11.6 times/hour for each patient. Adherence to hand hygiene was 22.5%. Compliance with hand hygiene was 25.3? before touching a patient, 25.2? before a clean/aseptic procedure, 14.0? after body fluid exposure risk, 30.6? after touching a patient, and 11.5? after touching patient surroundings. After improved education of and practices by health care practitioners, staff were again observed for 100 hours. Adherence to hand hygiene was found to have improved to 33.8% (P < 0.05). Conclusion Direct observation with a web camera allowed video to be recorded and saved for long periods and it allowed practices to be assessed. The saved video was circulated among the health care practitioners to allow a more objective intervention.