Hand washing is everyone's business

Chief Minister and Minister for Health, Katy Gallagher has welcomed the release today of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's first report on the results of national hand hygiene audits on the MyHospitals website.

"The inclusion of hand hygiene results on the MyHospitals website is another example of the increased commitment by all Australian Governments to increase the transparency and accountability of public hospital services," the Chief Minister said.

This is the first time that hand hygiene results have been published nationally broken down by hospital.

The results, which refer to the October 2011 audits of hand hygiene processes, show that Canberra Hospital reported a rate of 64.4 percent, slightly below the 70 percent national benchmark. Calvary reported a result of 69.9 percent which is almost at the national benchmark result.

While the result for the Canberra Hospital was below the national benchmark in October 2011, it was at the national benchmark rate in the previous, unpublished audit in July 2011. The drop in the rate was due to a change in way the information was collected, as the top performing wards in July 2011 were not included in the October audit, resulting in a drop in the Canberra Hospital rate.

"It is important to note that our results for hospital acquired infections are considerably better than the benchmark of 2 cases per 10,000 patient days, with Canberra Hospital reporting a rate of 1.06 cases per 10,000 patient days and Calvary with a result of 0.60 cases," the Chief Minister said.

"Nonetheless, I have asked the Canberra Hospital to ensure that our hand hygiene rate improves over the 2012 year.

"The publication of the results will help this as it provides a clear, and public, demonstration of how hospitals are performing against national targets, and ensures we are able to target our efforts in poorer performing wards.

"Hospitals are also increasing staff education in this area so that staff and patients are aware of the need to wash hands before and after the provision of services and treatments. 64 people have also been trained to undertake hand hygiene auditing across both hospitals, and the results will also be published in our quarterly reports as well as on the MyHospitals website," the Chief Minister said.

New patient booklets have been produced at Canberra Hospital that provide patients with a range of information including information about their right to ensure that clinicians wash their hands before and after providing treatment. Details about the 10 new national safety and quality standards - which include infection control - are also being widely promoted throughout Canberra hospitals for staff, patients and visitors alike.

"Patients and their families can help by asking doctors and nurses if they have washed their hands. This is a way for our community to help our clinicians to get better at hand hygiene," the Chief Minister said.

"And all visitors to our hospitals can also help by washing their hands with the antiseptic hand wash that is available at hospital entries and at the entry of all wards of the hospital.

"The hand hygiene results should be considered together with the rates for hospital acquired infections, which are also reported on the MyHospitals site.

"The main reason for the reporting of hand hygiene results is to reduce hospital acquired infection, so it is important we continue our efforts to lift our performance in this area," the Chief Minister concluded.