Compliance to Hand Hygiene World Health Organization Guidelines in Hospital Care

DEAR EDITOR, With the emergence of antibiotic‐resistant organisms, the importance of hand hygiene (HH) has re‐emerged as a priority for the 21 century hospital administrators. It is proven fact that, organisms that cause hospital acquired infections (HAI) are most commonly transmitted by health care workers and it is a proven fact that HAI rates are significantly reduced when health care workers act in accordance with recommended guidelines. Despite this fact, physicians’ adherence to HH practices remains consistently poor. Various tools and methodologies have been developed over the years for HH compliance measurement. In 2005, World Health Organization (WHO) launched Global Patient Safety Challenge under the slogan of “clean care is safer care” and in 2010, WHO under patient safety a world alliance developed a systematic tool, HH Self‐Assessment Framework (HHSAF) to obtain a situation analysis of HH promotion and practices within an individual health care facility? The present study was carried out to assess the HH compliance rate, assess the gaps and plan HH improvement measures in the facility’s intensive care units and points out major obstacles in health care setting. Such sort of studies are lacking in India. The tool is divided into 5 components Department of Hospital Administration, Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh, India, 1Department of Community Medicine, School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India, 2Department of Hospital Administration, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India