The hands of doctors and nurses across the Illawarra are some of the cleanest in the country.
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The first public disclosure of health professionals’ hygiene habits has found staff at hospitals in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District wash their hands more frequently than most others across Australia, leading to a substantial drop in infection rates.
The survey is one of the few where the region’s public hospitals have actually exceeded performance benchmarks.
Across 25 different wards and units, Wollongong Hospital staff complied with hand hygiene policy 78.5per cent of the time, while Shellharbour Hospital produced a compliance rate of 78.2per cent.
The target is 70per cent.
Roughly half the country’s major hospitals were below or only just meeting the benchmark.
Local health district infection management and control service manager Joanna Harris said compliance rates had been rising in the Illawarra for the past three years.
The increase in hand hygiene compliance had been met by a direct reduction in infection rates, particularly Staphylococcus aureus (golden staph).
‘‘We’re now seeing less than half what we used to,’’ Ms Harris said.
‘‘In 2008 we were on around 40 [cases] per year and now we’re less than 20 a year, which is a big improvement but a figure we would still like to see reduced.’’
According to NSW Health policy, staff are required to wash their hands before and after touching a patient and after a body fluid exposure risk.
They must also wash their hands after going to the toilet, sneezing or coughing into their hands, handling contaminated materials or waste and before handling patient food.
‘‘It’s fundamentally important that people who are in hospital are cared for by people who take care to ensure not only their hands, but also all sorts of equipment, is cleaned before and after that person and that equipment is touched,’’ Ms Harris said.
She also attributed strong hygiene performance to the improved availability of alcohol-based hand rub.
Across NSW public hospitals, the hand hygiene compliance rate improved by 14per cent from April 2010 to October 2011.
Public hospitals at Port Kembla, Bulli, Coledale and Kiama all easily exceeded the 70per cent benchmark, however Shoalhaven Hospital was just below it. The research has been published on the MyHospitals website.