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Hand-washing behaviour key to infection control in the NHS
March 31, 2010
Recent media interest in infection control in hospitals has revealed the importance of reporting and raising awareness to improve the levels of patient care. The Nursing Times have underlined the need to motivate and educate staff to adhere to rigorous infection control guidelines.
A major cause of hospital-acquired infection is poor hand-washing, and the report details how modifying health behaviour can tackle hygiene issues. Simple measures such as education, providing hand sanitizers in all rooms, and raising awareness through posters or regular reminders can help to draw attention to the integral issue of infection control.
By raising awareness of the importance of basic hygiene levels such as hand-washing, the report found that changes in behaviour resulted when the perception of risk of infection was understood. This resulted in a greater number of people adhering to infection control guidelines. Staff were encouraged to take responsibility for their actions and create an safe and clean environment.
Risk assessment and reporting incidents is crucial in ensuring high quality patient care. By empowering nursing staff to report their own data on patient observations, this generates a sense of autonomy that can improve the quality of care delivered.
This underlines the need for tools to enable staff to conduct risk assessments easily, and encourage the prevention of infection. Tortrix works closely with the NHS to deliver software solutions that act as reporting and review tools for infection control, risk assessments for pressure ulcers, and reporting on patient observations.
An enhanced sense of responsibility for infection control and patient safety among staff will result in greater quality care for patients. The Saving Lives Assessment developed by Tortrix is a simple tool that indicates targets to be achieved in an accessible format, and encourages healthcare professionals to work according to best practice.
It is encouraging to see that rates of infection are falling, and that reporting results in better and safer care. Whilst there is a need for a wide range of measures to assess a trust's performance, improving levels of reporting at the ward level demonstrates a encouraging trend. An enhanced culture of awareness will ensure that patients get the best quality care.
Tortrix works to produce software solutions that empower healthcare professionals to deliver better and safer patient care in an acute hospital environment.
