Journal of Infectious Diseases & Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

The study aims at identifying the reasons for a plateau compliance rate of 66% in spite of having implemented a strong hospital hand hygiene program. This was a quantitative study to address the issue of hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers by assessing their perception towards the hand hygiene program at the hospital through a survey and focus group discussions. A total of 250 healthcare workers were included in the survey. The target population included doctors: interns, residents/medical officers and consultants/specialists, along with 150 nurses: unit and staff nurses. The focus group discussions facilitated a debate regarding the current program and the challenges faced by the staff in their role as the end users. The P value was calculated based on these results using a Chi square test. The P value calculated based on the audit was 0.28 with a significance of 0.05 calculated to two degrees of freedom. The χ2 value was 2.52. A 92.4% participation rate was recorded and significant differences were noted in the perception of hand hygiene between junior and senior staff. Areas of poor scores were elaborated on in the focus group discussions to understand reasoning behind the responses and reach a consensus on the best way to tackle the issues faced. The study highlights the success of the hospital wide hand hygiene program while underscoring the areas for improvement and concern, the need for constant hand hygiene education and intervention in a large hospital in spite of having an established program and establishes a benchmark for further studies in hand hygiene compliance.

Biography

Sumaiah Farook is the Head of Infection Prevention and Control at Apollo Hospital Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman and was formerly employed with the Royal Hospital, Oman. Somayeh is a member of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Her primary focus of study has been antimicrobial resistance and she is passionate about her study of multi drug resistant organisms and healthcare associated infections. Of particular focus is her work in collection of epidemiological evidence in surgical site infections and implementation of the Oman National Antimicrobial Guidelines. She has been a part of the launch of the National Antimicrobial Stewardship Program in Oman where her data on antimicrobial surgical prophylaxis was one of the few presented studies. As an infection preventionist, she is a strong advocate of hospital hygiene standards and their role in lowering infection rates.

E-mail: sumaiahshakir@gmail.com