Healthcare workers in intensive care units (ICUs) are regularly missing opportunities to clean their hands during the care of patients, according to an article on the Science Daily website.
According to new research, hand-hygiene compliance was lowest when moving from dirtier to cleaner patient-care tasks than from cleaner to dirtier tasks.
Interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance should teach healthcare workers to move from cleaner to dirtier tasks to minimize risks to patients, according to the study.
Researchers from Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City, Iowa, analyzed data from the Strategies to Reduce Transmission of Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria in Intensive Care Units (STAR*ICU) study.