Personal feedback improved handwashing

Giving one-to-one feedback to healthcare workers makes them twice as likely to clean their hands or use soap, researchers in Britain said. The Feedback Intervention Trial was conducted in 60 wards in 16 hospitals that were already implementing the English and Welsh Cleanyourhands campaign. The study, published in PLOS ONE, found an intervention coupled with feedback to personalized action planning improved hand-hygiene compliance by as much as 18 percent on intensive therapy units and 13 percent on acute care of the elderly wards. Principle investigator Dr. Sheldon Stone University College London Medical School at the Royal Free Hospital in partnership with the Health Protection Agency also found soap use increased by 30 percent. Stone said the three-year trial involved a four-week audit cycle, with healthcare workers observed for 20 minutes. Immediate feedback was given after the period of observation, and the person was then helped to form a personal action plan for better hand hygiene. In addition to observing and measuring hand-hygiene compliance, the amount of soap and alcohol hand-rub used each month was also collected as another measure of hand-hygiene compliance for each ward. Hand-hygiene compliance among healthcare workers in Britain remains poor, with levels of 25 percent to 40 percent common. In the United States, studies found it is about 50 percent.