Results
Intensive care unit
Fourteen 90 min observation sessions were conducted within an ICU bay. Hand-hygiene compliance was 60% (based on observable outcomes). Of the 255 hand-hygiene opportunities identified, 101 (40%) occurred after contact with the environ- ment. The sites most frequently touched were within the patient zone (i.e. the patient’s immediate surroundings) and included the equipment trolley (211 contacts) and the computer keyboard (170 contacts). Movement between an equipment trolley and a patient was observed on 50 occasions (Table I). Hand-hygiene compliance when moving from a patient to a trolley was 11% (based on observable outcomes; 1/9). Observed hand-hygiene compliance when moving from a trolley to a patient was 43% (12/28). Healthcare workers were also observed to regularly move from a patient to the bedside computer (electronic records); the observed hand-hygiene compliance associated with this movement route was 14% (1/7).
Seventeen 90 min observation sessions were conducted within a single isolation room. Hand-hygiene compliance was 62% (169/271). In all, 154 people were observed to enter the room and 137 people were observed to leave; contact with the inner or outer door handle was thus observed on 291 occasions. Inside the room, the sites most commonly touched were the equipment trolley (183 contacts) and the computer keyboard (159 contacts). As in the bay, most movement was between the equipment trolley and the patient and observed hand-hygiene compliance was higher when moving from trolley to patient (68%) than from patient to trolley (29%; Table I). Observed hand-hygiene compliance when moving from a patient to the bedside computer was 22% (2/9).