BACKGROUND The Hawthorne effect, or behaviour change due to awareness of being observed, is assumed to inflate hand hygiene compliance rates as measured by direct observation but there are limited data to support this. OBJECTIVE To determine whether the presence of hand hygiene auditors was associated with an increase in hand hygiene events as measured by a real-time location system (RTLS). ...

A Jurke ([email protected])1, R Köck2, K Becker3, S Thole1, R Hendrix4, J Rossen4, I Daniels-Haardt5, A W Friedrich4 1. Department of Infectiology and Hygiene, NRW Centre for Health, Münster, Germany 2. Institute of Hygiene, University Hospital Münster, Germany 3. Institute of Medical Microbiology, University Hospital Münster, Germany 4. Department of Medical Microbiology, University ...

1 Health Care Research Unit, University of Southampton, UK 2 Richard Bright Renal Unit, Southmead Hospital, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, UK 3 Department of Renal Medicine, Lister Hospital, Stevenage, UK 4 Health Services Research Unit, Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK 5 Public and Environmental Health Research Unit (PEHRU), London ...

Introduction / objectives The frequent use of peripheral venous catheters (PVC) generate a significant number of infections. Since 2005, a standard recommendation edited by the French Society for Hospital Hygiene has been promoted in healthcare facilities (HCF). In 2009, the French Group for Evaluation of Practices concerning Hospital Hygiene (GREPHH) has provided an evaluation tool for PVC pra...

BACKGROUND The hand hygiene practices of health care workers (HCWs) have long been the main vector for nosocomial infection in hospitals. The purpose of this study was to examine influences on risk judgment from the individual differences in knowledge levels and health beliefs among US HCWs. METHODS Knowledge levels were assessed by questions taken from published questionnaires. The health lo...

Background. It is a fact that hand hygiene prevents nosocomial infection, but compliance with recommended instructions is commonly poor. The purpose of this study was to implement a hand hygiene program for increase compliance with hand hygiene and its relationship with nosocomial infection (NI) and MRSA infection/colonization rates. Methods. Compliance to hand hygiene was evaluated in a hospit...

Inadequately performed hand hygiene and non-disinfected surfaces are two reasons why the keys and mouse-buttons of laptops could be sources of microbial contamination resulting consequently in indirect transmission of potential pathogens and nosocomial infections. Until now the question has not been addressed whether the ventilation-blowers in laptops are actually responsible for the spreading ...

To the Editor—We read with great interest the excellent review of evidence-based recommendations for the prevention of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) by Louh et al. In this article, the authors reviewed 4 studies that assessed the impact of hand-hygiene campaigns to reduce CDI. Based on these papers, the authors did not recommend any hand-hygiene interventions to reduce CDI. In their dis...

BACKGROUND Evaluations are essential to judge the success of public health programmes. In Europe, the proportion of public health programmes that undergo evaluation remains unclear. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control sought to determine the frequency of evaluations amongst European national public health programmes by using national hand hygiene campaigns as an example of in...