A Commitment to Patient Safety

 

Healthcare provider hands are the number one way that bacteria and viruses are spread from patient to patient in the hospital. We want our doctors and nurses to come into the room with their compassion and their expertise, not with bacteria or viruses on their hands. You can be assured that the University of Chicago is going above and beyond to improve Hand Hygiene compliance so you have the safest experience as a patient.

The average HH compliance rate across the US is less than 50%- that means that your doctors and nurses are washing their hands less than half of the time that they should in any hospital in America. The methods most hospitals use to measure HH are not very accurate- they rely on having someone well known to the staff come to the unit and observe. As we all know, we tend to improve our performance when we know we are being watched.

At the University of Chicago Medicine, we are able to monitor every single Hand Hygiene opportunity, which goes above and beyond what other hospitals are capable of doing when it comes to monitoring Hand Hygiene, using electronic monitoring technology. This technology works hand in hand with our experts in performance improvement who work with each hospital unit to improve HH in the best way for that particular microsystem. Some units have chosen to increase signage promoting Hand Hygiene, others have increased direct observations and feedback to staff, and many have integrated this feedback into daily huddles. This tailored approach allows each unit to identify their own needs and approaches for improving Hand Hygiene.

Hand Hygiene is everybody’s responsibility but it is our responsibility to keep our patients safe. Feel free to ask your doctors and nurses to wash their hands anytime but we know that as a patient you are thinking about your illness and how to get better. You don’t need to worry about Hand Hygiene- we are thinking about that for you.

 

Emily Landon, MD
Hospital Epidemiologist