Compliance on hand-hygiene among healthcare providers working at secondary and tertiary general hospitals in Chengdu / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the compliance on hand-hygiene and related factors among healthcare providers working at secondary and tertiary hospitals in Chengdu.Methods On-site observations regarding hand-hygiene compliance and facilities were conducted in 6 hospitals in Chengdu.Doctors and nurses were asked and recorded about their knowledge regarding hand hygiene.Results Of 1535 activities where hand-hygiene was deemed necessary,under observating healthcare providers would perform hand-hygiene procedures 17.8％ of the time (12.8％ of the time before touching a patient,21.0％ of the time before touching objects around a patient,27.3％ of the time after touching a patient,and 31.5％ of the time after removing gloves).Only 2.2％ of the treating rooms were equipped with foot-operated or automatic faucets; of these only 24.5％ had soap or alcohol-based hand-sanitizer,and 6.3％ had paper towel or other hand-drying equipments.92.8％ of the healthcare providers knew of the six-step method on hand-washing.More than 90.0％ of the healthcare providers knew that both palm and back of the hands as well as the front and back of the fingers should be washed.However,only 22.8％ knew that the hand-washing procedure should last ≥15 seconds.Rates on hand hygiene among chief or more senior physicians (14.6％),attending physicians (9.2％) and junior doctors (15.6％),nurses in chief (25.0％),senior nurses (26.3％) and junior nurses (20.5％) showed no significant differences (P＞0.05).Similarly,scores on related knowledge between chief or senior physicians (12.4 ± 3.2),attending physicians (13.6 ± 3.3) and junior doctors ( 13.4 ± 2.9),nurses in charge ( 15.2 ± 2.0),senior nurses ( 14.8 ± 2.1 ) and junior nurses (14.3 ± 2.6) also showed no significant differences (P＞0.05).Rate on hand hygiene among nurses (22.7％) was significantly higher than that of the doctors ( 13.6％ ).Rate of hand hygiene among 50-59 years old healthcare providers (7.4％) was significantly lower than those of all the other age groups ( 17.1％-25.0％ ) ; rate of female health care providers ( 19.5％ ) was significantly higher than that of males ( 13.8％ ).Similarly,the nurse' s knowledge score ( 14.7 ± 2.3) was significantly higher than that of the doctors ( 13.2 ± 3.1 ).Among 50-59 years old healthcare providers,the rate was ( 12.2 ± 3.8) significantly lower than that of 20-29 ( 14.0 ± 2.6),30-39 ( 14.3 ± 2.9) and 40-49 year olds ( 13.8 ± 2.7).Again,the knowledge score of females ( 14.5 ± 2.5 ) was significantly higher than that of males (12.7 ± 3.2) (P＜0.05).Conclusion The high-level knowledge on hand-hygiene among healthcare providers in this area did not translate into good practices.Also,most of the hospitals had poor hand-hygiene equipments.We recommend that training and periodic monitoring be conducted,and hand-hygiene equipment be improved to facilitate hand-hygiene practices among healthcare providers.