Title |
Increasing the frequency of hand washing by healthcare workers does not lead to commensurate reductions in staphylococcal infection in a hospital ward
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Published in |
BMC Infectious Diseases, September 2008
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DOI | 10.1186/1471-2334-8-114 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Clive B Beggs, Simon J Shepherd, Kevin G Kerr |
Abstract |
Hand hygiene is generally considered to be the most important measure that can be applied to prevent the spread of healthcare-associated infection (HAI). Continuous emphasis on this intervention has lead to the widespread opinion that HAI rates can be greatly reduced by increased hand hygiene compliance alone. However, this assumes that the effectiveness of hand hygiene is not constrained by other factors and that improved compliance in excess of a given level, in itself, will result in a commensurate reduction in the incidence of HAI. However, several researchers have found the law of diminishing returns to apply to hand hygiene, with the greatest benefits occurring in the first 20% or so of compliance, and others have demonstrated that poor cohorting of nursing staff profoundly influences the effectiveness of hand hygiene measures. Collectively, these findings raise intriguing questions about the extent to which increasing compliance alone can further reduce rates of HAI. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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Korea, Democratic People's Republic of | 1 | 25% |
United Kingdom | 1 | 25% |
United States | 1 | 25% |
Unknown | 1 | 25% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 3 | 75% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 25% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 4 | 5% |
Iran, Islamic Republic of | 1 | 1% |
France | 1 | 1% |
Unknown | 79 | 93% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Researcher | 14 | 16% |
Student > Master | 14 | 16% |
Student > Bachelor | 9 | 11% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 9 | 11% |
Other | 6 | 7% |
Other | 18 | 21% |
Unknown | 15 | 18% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Medicine and Dentistry | 39 | 46% |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 6 | 7% |
Engineering | 4 | 5% |
Environmental Science | 4 | 5% |
Nursing and Health Professions | 4 | 5% |
Other | 10 | 12% |
Unknown | 18 | 21% |