RESEARCH ARTICLE
Correlation between Antibiotic Consumption and Hand Hygiene Compliance Among Anesthesia and Intensive Care Healthcare Professionals
Emanuela Santoro1, Marco Fiore2, *, Sebastiano Leone3, Armando Masucci4, Roberta Manente1, Marco Guida5, Giovanni Libralato5, Michela Russo1, Valeria Di Onofrio6, Mario Capunzo1, Giovanni Boccia1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2020Volume: 14
First Page: 42
Last Page: 48
Publisher ID: TOATJ-14-42
DOI: 10.2174/2589645802014010042
Article History:
Received Date: 20/2/2020Revision Received Date: 20/4/2020
Acceptance Date: 11/5/2020
Electronic publication date: 30/07/2020
Collection year: 2020
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Aims:
The aim of this study was to investigate the correct use of gloves and alcohol-based products for hand hygiene and identify opportunities for hand hygiene replacement with gloves among healthcare professionals working in the Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care of a tertiary care University Hospital.
Background:
Two centuries have passed since the discovery of Semmelweis that the “puerperal fever” was due to an infection transmitted by the hands. Currently the hand hygiene is still not well performed, rather it is often replaced by the improper use of gloves. Microbial transmission is estimated to occur in one-fifth of all contact cases.
Objective:
To investigate the correct use of gloves and alcohol-based products for hand hygiene and identify opportunities for hand hygiene replacement with gloves among healthcare professionals. Furthermore, to correlate the consumption data of the hydroalcoholic solution and the amount of antibiotics used for the treatment of hospital-acquired infections.
Method:
The study was conducted over six months period (from January to June 2018); during this period, 20 monitoring sessions were performed. The following indicators were evaluated: a) Non-adherence to hand hygiene with concomitant use of gloves; b) Adhesion to alcoholic friction of hands; c) Hand-washing adhesion. Instead, the consumption data, provided by the hospital ward itself, were used for the evaluation of d) The antibiotics used in the treatment of hospital-acquired infections; e) The hydro-alcoholic solution used by the healthcare professionals for hand hygiene.
Results:
The frequency of non-adherence to hand hygiene was very high at the beginning of the study, subsequently it decreased to about a half percent to that at the initial stage. The adhesion to alcoholic friction of hands increased during the study period. Otherwise, the hand-washing adhesion slightly reduced, especially in March probably due to the recruitment of new inadequately trained nursing staff. The trend of antibiotic consumption was similar to handwashing. The consumption of hydro-alcoholic solution was very low, however over time, it increased considerably until the end of the study.
Conclusion:
In light of the findings from this work, it is necessary to make the hospital staff increasingly aware of the correct practice of hand hygiene and to organize training and informative sessions to promote the health of the individual and the community.
